


Yugi, Harry and the Shadow Treaty

by JoeyTaylor



Series: Clanverse [9]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, F/M, Ombre
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-11
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-07-29 07:45:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 19
Words: 125,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16259789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoeyTaylor/pseuds/JoeyTaylor
Summary: When the Shadows broke free during Memory World, they unlocked the powers of every Shadow-Touched Duelist across the globe, leaving the magical world in uproar. Now the Gang must deal with the fallout before war erupts between wizards and Duelists.





	1. Fallout

"...And I can now say with one hundred percent certainty that the events of this morning were not caused by Kaiba Corp technology."

It had only been a couple of hours since he'd returned from the World of the Pharaoh's Memories and picked his brother up from the hospital, but he was already in the middle of a press conference.

He'd been tempted to drag Atem in to deal with this since this was technically his mess, but the Pharaoh had no standing in Kaiba Corp and Seto very much doubted he'd get anything intelligent out of him at the moment anyway. No. He didn't need Atem, not for this. He'd never need the Pharaoh for this.

Kaiba Corp was his. He and he alone had fought so hard to rebuild it from the ashes of his father's weapon manufacturers. The day he needed someone's help protecting it from the press was the day he considered looking for someone to take over.

Even as he took questions he was already wondering how bad a hit his company was going to take for this. Share holders were already selling as fast as they could get away with. The company would crash if he couldn't stop the downwards spiral it had already started.

"But Mr Kaiba, if your holographic projectors weren't to blame then what was?"

"Mr Kaiba, does the 'Pharaoh' who unleashed those... creatures on the world, work for you?"

Seto scowled at the last reporter. Even if Atem had worked for him, it wasn't the Pharaoh who had released the Shadows, nor would Seto admit if Atem did or had. Besides, the reporter in question had a Duel Monster, a Tuned Magician, who hadn't left her side the entire time. She should have known more of the full story then the others.

Of course there was always the option of putting the blame squarely on the shoulders of the one who had caused all of this trouble.

"As I'm sure your Duel Monster could inform you, it wasn't the 'Pharaoh' who released the darkness. I happened to be there when the Shadows, as they are called, were released. A lot of people died trying to stop Bakura Malfoy from freeing them."

That, of course, opened up a whole new bunch of questions along the lines of 'what happened to free the 'Shadows'?' as well as 'who is Bakura Malfoy?' and 'where did this all happen?'.

Seto, refusing to answer anyone who shouted out, just as he always had, scowled slightly as he watched the Tuned Magician whisper something in the reporter's ear, only for her to nod to her magician and raise her hand.

"Mikazi?" Kaiba asked when her hand didn't fall.

"Is it true that one of the Mutou twins is the Pharaoh that the Duel Monsters spoke of and that one of them nearly died while trying to prevent 'Bakura' from setting this morning's Attack in progress?"

Seto forced himself to think quickly. There wasn't much point to denying a simple truth. Every Duel Monster he'd met knew of the Mutou twins, in fact Geki had told Mokuba the tales that were told about them. He somehow doubted that the Duel Monsters who were now at their Duellists' sides were keeping back the tales that Geki had been so proud of.

What the press didn't need to know was that Atem was a Pharaoh from over five thousand years ago and that Yugi was his reincarnation, not from him at least.

"Yes, it's true that one of the Mutou twins is the Pharaoh, and before you ask, I can't tell you which one because I'm not certain of that myself," After Yugi's stunt this morning and Joey's explanation, he was finally beginning to believe that, for all their differences, they were, as they had always claimed, two halves of the same whole, "However both of them nearly died this morning while stopping the Attack."

He raised his hand before there could be any more questions. "I have already paid for the best medical treatment available and you will not find them at their home, so there is no point camping outside their house. If and when they are recovered enough to deal with the press, I will hold another press conference."

He was being overly dramatic and he was fully aware that Yugi and the Pharaoh would be 'ill amused' with him, but they could shout at him later. They had plenty of opportunities to do so considering that he'd moved everyone under the age of twenty four into his mansion for the time being.

He'd never realised before this afternoon how crowded the flat above the shop was. He'd always assumed there was enough room for everyone because he'd never been there. He had just never had the time. He'd only gone there today because Mokuba had wanted to see that everyone was all right with his own eyes.

Until today he hadn't known that there were seven people (eleven now Luna was Solomon's ward, another thing Bakura wasn't around to answer for. Hermione needed to stay close to her friends and her parents had refused to leave the flat while Hermione was still there) living in what was essentially a three person flat. Of course they'd tried to make arrangements to fit everyone.

Yugi, Atem and Joey had been going to squeeze into Yugi's room, Solomon, Mr Dr Granger and Yugi's father in the small store room that had been converted into 'Yami's room' and the five women, Ombre, Luna, Hermione, Mrs Dr Granger and Yugi's mother in the main bedroom.

They could have put extension charms on the flat, but there still would have been between three and five in a room, since there weren't any closets they could use to make new ones. Expansion charms didn't go on for eternity, at best they could only double the size of a room and they were expensive to maintain.

Not that Seto would have minded paying the cost, but he didn't see the point when they were family and he had enough rooms in the mansion to host thirty Clan members, or at least it felt like it.

At least at the mansion his Doctor, the same Muggle one that had treated them at the ruins of the Capsule Monsters game, could actually get to his patients, unlike at the Shop.

"But Mr Kaiba..." The reporter trailed off when a purple robed Dark Magician appeared next to the podium out of thin air.

"Mahado." Seto nodded to the Duel Monster before turning to the reporters, "This press conference is over."

His security moved to block off the reporters from following as he and the Dark Magician left the room and headed for the lift.

"I take it you being here means the Pharaoh woke up." Seto commented as they stepped into the lift, then paused, his finger midway to the button to his floor as he realised that he'd started thinking of Atem as 'the Pharaoh' and trying to work out when that had happened.

"No, the Pharaoh's still sleeping. I doubt he'll wake till tomorrow at the earliest." The Dark Magician shook his head, "I came because I needed to speak with you and Kisara passed on a message that you needed an excuse to get out of that conference."

Seto snorted as he pressed the button, semi amused at the thought of his dragon helping him get away from the vultures who would now extrapolate from what he'd said, gather some information from Duellists and what little they'd be able to gather from talking to anyone who had any sort of contact with Yugi and the others and come up with something completely false.

"Explain." Seto waved for the Dark Magician to continue as the lift started moving, semi surprised that the Pharaoh's most loyal priest wanted to speak to him of all people.

"You were at Kul Elna."

And suddenly it made sense. Seto had guessed that the place had been important during Atem's time, but he hadn't been there long enough to find out why. "I was."

"How much do you know?"

That was a loaded question. He could get the information he'd been after, why Bakura had been torturing Atem when he'd gotten to the ruined village, why something in the village had been weighing down on them, why the spirits of Kul Elna had been so furious at the priests...

But at the same time if it had been important for all the wrong reasons, Mahado would be unlikely to tell him anything and a wrong question could land him in the Dark Magician's bad books.

But when had that ever scared him?

"Enough to want some answers." Seto replied, watching the way the Dark Magician was stood, the small unconscious gestures that had been reawakened with the memories that five thousand years had washed away, "The Millennium Items were created there, weren't they? That was what that stone Bakura was trying to protect was."

"Yes." Mahado nodded, waiting for more from the CEO, having wondered if these thoughts had been travelling through Seto's mind and wanting to speak to him before he spoke to the others, "They were."

Seto nodded and considered everything he'd seen. Mahado obviously wanted to talk about something important, so there was more to this visit than just that. Then the picture came together in Seto's head. The rage of the spirits, the dark aura around the village, Bakura's hatred of the Pharaoh.

"How many died when they were created?" Seto asked. There was no point judging, not now. The Millennium Items had been created so long ago that there was no way anyone could do anything about it. His only questions were how many and had it been Atem that had ordered their deaths?

"Ninety nine. Ninety nine lives to save the entire country. Bakura was the only survivor. The Pharaoh's Uncle thought it was worth it and never gave the crown a chance to say no."

And in those times the son inherited the sins of the father. Still, unless he was going after the Pharaoh's son because it had been Pharaoh's men who had committed the crimes, Bakura's five thousand year old grudge had been aimed at the wrong reincarnation. Instead of chasing Yugi, he should have been hunting Seto...

"The Pharaoh knows, Yugi probably does too, since he got a copy of all his memories from his past life. The others, except us," Mahado indicated himself and Seto, "Have no idea."

"It should stay that way." Seto nodded, hearing the question beneath Mahado's words. He understood. Five thousand years ago the sacrifice of a few for the lives of the many would have been, if not right, at least acceptable, but what was allowable changed over the course of time and the others would never understand that the Millennium Items had been needed.

Mahado let out a soft sigh of relief. He'd been worried that Seto would inform the others of what had happened. He should have realised that the CEO would probably be the most reasonable about this whole thing.

"Go home and rest." Seto surprised the Dark Magician by saying, "You and the Pharaoh," Seto internally grimaced as he realised that he was going to keep calling Atem that if he didn't do something about it, "Are going to have a lot to talk about and I doubt the Monster World's any quieter then here."

"You have no idea." Mahado muttered under his breath, "Look after them for me. I'll be back shortly."

"They're my family, Mahado." Seto replied with a short nod, his headache beginning to return. He needed another cup of coffee, "Of course I'll look after them."

Mahado nodded and disappeared just in time for Seto's PA to find them.

"Mr Kaiba, sir? There's someone from the Ministry of Magical Japan to speak with you?"

Seto let out a soft snort. He was just glad he'd managed to get at least one press conference out before they'd pounced on him, "Where?"

"Your office."

* * *

The International Confederation of Wizards was having its first major meeting in five years.

There were representatives from almost all of the major European countries and all of them were shouting at the Supreme Mugwump about his inability to stick to The Plan.

When they'd first found out about the Shadow Wielders, there had been fear, suspicion, even anger that someone outside of their world could wield a magic so powerful that it could negate and obliterate their own.

And so the plan had been formed.

The original plan A had been simple. The Shadow Act that would have been passed would have called for the deaths of anyone shown to have access to or have been touched by Shadow Magic.

Then there had been an amendment. The Supreme Mugwump had offered another, more peaceful solution.

He would get the Shadow Wielders to join his school and take them under his wing. There he would be able to watch and control their actions. If they followed him, the Lord of the Light, the Defeater of Grindlewald, then they were far less likely to attempt to destroy the world of the wand users and, if aided properly, even guided away from their dark powers, back to the light.

And so the new Shadow Act had passed and Dumbledore, via the judicious use of compulsions, manipulation and monetary offerings to various people, including those within the Ministry of Magical Japan, who had been against taking the group out of Japan and had been dealing with it in their own way until they'd had to bow to international pressure, had gotten the wielders of the most dangerous magic in the history of the world to join his school.

And now the Original Shadow Wielders had done it anyway.

Unleashed the darkness the entire council had feared upon the world.

Those from the ICoW had already been making plans to usurp Dumbledore after he'd lost control of the Ring Holder and his guardian ghost (who should have been sent to the afterlife, either via the death of his host or by being sent through the veil, as soon as he'd become public knowledge) were in uproar now.

They had only passed the amendment because Dumbledore had promised that he could keep control of those he'd Confounded into his school. Now, not only had he lost control of the situation, not only had the world almost been destroyed by darkness, as they'd feared would happen since discovering the Millennium Items, but there were Muggles who had suddenly developed similar but weaker powers like those the item holders held, the power to summon creatures from the Realm of Shadows.

Now, because Dumbledore had lost control, instead of just six Shadow Wielders, who they could have dealt with, they had thousands, possibly more, Shadow-Touched Muggles to deal with and if they started wiping them out, they would start a war with the Muggle world.

Of course there was one way to repress those who had come into their powers suddenly without resorting to genocide, a word that none of them liked.

Put the original six, Yugi Mutou, Joey Wheeler, Seto Kaiba, Mokuba Kaiba, Ryou Bakura and Rebecca Hawkins, on trial.

They'd need extradition orders for all of the Shadow Wielders who lived abroad, which included the main ring leaders, and find those who had fled England the moment that the Shadows had invaded the world.

There were others who had been trained by the original Shadow Wielders, others they were thinking of putting on trial, six more in fact.

The Boy-Who-Lived, who should never have been allowed to mingle with such Dark Wizards and was tainted by his bond to the Puzzle Holders, four members of the Weasley family, a Pure-Blood family from England and a Muggle-Born witch named Granger.

The four Shadow-Touched Weasleys were hiding and while they could have demanded Mr. Potter's and Ms. Granger's return a year ago, their induction to the 'Domino Clan' gave them sanctuary in Japan as a citizen of the country, should they seek it.

The crimes against wizarding kind, especially the breech of the International Statute of Secrecy, were great and someone had to pay for it. The question was who. In theory the International Confederation of Wizards, whose rules governed magical Europe, had no jurisdiction over something that had triggered in Japan.

However the wizards who had triggered the Attack were, as Domino Clan members, citizens of not only Japan, but England, America and Egypt too. Meaning that the ICoW had some, not much, considering that only one of those countries were within their borders, but some jurisdiction over what happened because of their actions.

Not only that, but the Attack hadn't just happened in Japan. It hadn't just changed Japanese muggles. It had affected the entire world. Something had to be done and someone had to pay for the crime of revealing magic to the world.

The arguments went on late into the night, but, at five minutes past nine CEST a decision was made.

The Original six Shadow Wielders, and their other selves would face trial for their crimes against the wizarding world and, when... if found guilty would be sentenced to death.

Now all they had to do was get them extradited from Japan...

* * *

It was only six o'clock in the morning and Mokuba was already up and watching television.

Yesterday's press conference had been shown repeatedly on all the news channels right through the night, along with videos of the Attack. Mokuba had known it was bad, when he'd come around he'd helped defend the Hospital after all, but he hadn't realised how bad it had gotten.

Seto had told him about what had happened inside the Shadow Game, but it was pretty hard to believe that all of this had been the result of Bakura's actions during it, even for him and he had more clue as to what the Shadows could do.

That wasn't what he was watching for though. What he was watching for was the bulletin that his brother and the Ministry of Magical Japan had sent out an hour ago, after the International Confederate of Wizards had started demanded the extradition of those Clan members who originated from Japan, as well as 'Mr Potter' and 'Miss Granger'.

Of course the Japanese Ministry had turned around and told them where to stick it within the hour.

Oh they'd been polite about it, reminded them that the Shadows had been disseminated by Bakura Malfoy, not any of those who were currently alive and well in Japan, and they had even gone so far as to offer Bakura Malfoy up, but the ICow had no interest in a dead scapegoat, they wanted a living one that they could put all the blame on and execute to get some sort of control over the situation.

And so his Brother and the Japanese Ministry had come up with a solution that would probably tick off a lot of people, but would firmly cement the idea that Yugi and the others were heroes and Bakura was the villain in people's minds before the ICoW could do anything.

Personally while Mokuba was glad Seto had come up with something quickly, after all he was counted among those 'original Shadow Wielders' simply by dint of having been touched by Shadow Magic before they'd gone to Hogwarts, he wasn't sure that this wasn't at least partially Atem's fault.

If the Pharaoh hadn't gone to the museum, then Bakura wouldn't have been unable to summon Zorc.

Mokuba's train of thoughts derailed as the Kaiba Corp logo came back up on screen. The second press conference was about to start then.

"News just breaking, we go live to the CEO of Kaiba Corp, who, yesterday afternoon, denied that his company had anything to do with the Attack that struck worldwide," And of course they'd focus on that, "And who is answering questions about the press release that was sent out just an hour ago..."

With that it cut to the press room of Kaiba Corp, where Seto, backed up by a pair of rather large security guards, with both the Muggle Prime Minister and the Speaker for Magical Japan, who was the Japanese equivalent of the English Ministry's Minister of Magic but who had to answer to the Diet (the Japanese parliament) were about to start.

Mokuba would have been there with them - Seto had, after all, been refusing to let him out of his sight - if the Speaker hadn't assigned three of his best Shiragiku, the Japanese equivalent of Aurors, to Mokuba's safety. Even then Seto had only done it because Mokuba had wanted to keep an eye on the others, who were still asleep upstairs.

Not that they hadn't been lucky with the healers that had been assigned to them. In fact Mokuba was rather looking forward to when Joey woke up.

"Before any of you ask, the Mutou twins are still recovering from their injuries and will not be coming this morning." The CEO told the reporters, "However there are many rumours flying around that need to be stopped."

Mokuba could hear the disgruntled murmurs but Seto ignored them.

"I am fully aware that all of you want information on what happened yesterday morning that triggered the Attack. After getting all the information available, I can now tell you almost exactly what happened…"

* * *

The clock was chiming eight o'clock when Joey stirred from his slumber, though his sleep addled brain wasn't sure if it was am or pm even though sunlight poured through the window.

He'd managed to stay awake long enough to help move everyone from the shop to Kaiba's Mansion but, after he'd helped everyone get settled, the combination of the three hour Shadow Game, losing over half his life energy in one shot and carrying his friends around had sent him deep into dream land.

Not that he would have woken up when he had if it hadn't been for the voices in his room.

He blinked at the group gathered, comparing notes, one of whom was in a lab coat, the other two in medical robes. One of whom he knew.

"Serenity?" He asked, sitting up slowly, his head spinning.

"Joey? You're awake?" Serenity darted over to his bed, dropping her notes on the table beside him, and hugging him.

"Hey, hey, easy sis." Joey murmured, hugging her in return and rubbing her back when he realised she was sobbing, "I'm all right."

"I thought... when the Shadows came..." She hiccupped, tears soaking the t-shirt he'd thrown on before collapsing into bed, "You... and then the Ministry..."

"The Ministry?" Joey warily asked the older witch who was watching the scene with a combination of bemusement and irritation, having not thought about what the Ministry of Magic would say to them over what had happened.

"I'm Healer Akata Yuna. I'm assuming you know my Apprentice, Wheeler Serenity." Joey nodded as the older witch spoke, "The Ministry for Magical Japan has assigned us to the cases of you and your friends. We're working in connection with your regular Doctor," She gestured towards the Muggle Doctor, Dr. Hoshigawa, who Joey knew far too well, "In order to provide the best treatment we can." She snorted slightly, "I should ask for another pair to be assigned. I should have guessed that Wheeler Serenity and Wheeler Joseph were siblings."

"Don't." Joey shook his head, "I'll behave. Besides there's nothing wrong with me that a four course meal won't solve." Joey flexed his muscles when his sister pulled away, looking embarrassed in front of her mentor, both at her actions and her brother's posturing, "How are the others?" He asked as he attempted to get out of bed.

"Serenity, would you go inform the butler that Wheeler-San is awake and requires a large meal?" Healer Akata asked. Serenity nodded and darted out the door.

"Since when did I rate a Wheeler-San from anyone?" Joey asked, confused, having never been treated with a huge amount of respect by anyone outside his group of friends and even that was rare. His friends were too fond of poking each other's egos to act respectful, even towards those who were much smarter or more powerful in their group.

"When you help save the world your standing goes up." Dr Hoshigawa joked, knowing the blonde's humour rather well, only to see Joey's shoulders sink.

"How many people know about...?" He trailed off when Serenity re-entered the room and offered him the newspaper she'd grabbed on her way back in. Just reading the headline was enough to cause him to groan, his face a picture of semi-amused concern, "We're in trouble."

"Actually, thanks to the Ministry and Kaiba-San, you're not." Serenity shook her head as she started to do all the necessary checks under the watchful eye of her mentor, "They already released a press statement announcing that the 'Pharaoh' lives and Bakura Malfoy was the one who caused all the destruction."

Joey stared at her, unsure if he'd actually woken up or whether he was dreaming.

"Of course there are going to be those who don't believe what they're being told but..." Healer Akata trailed off at Joey's confused look. "I can get Kaiba Mokuba to come up and tell you what his brother's been up to if you like?"

"Can't I get out of bed yet Doc?" Joey begged, feeling fine except for the hunger.

Dr. Hoshigawa and Healer Akata looked at each other and muttered to each other before nodding and making up their minds.

"Apprentice Healer Wheeler." Dr Hoshigawa turned to Serenity, "Please take Wheeler-San down to the front living room and then join us in Granger-San's room."

"How is 'Mione?" Joey asked, concerned for his friend.

"She should be okay." Serenity answered as she turned away from him so he could get dressed and the other two left the room. "It was touch and go for a while, but we managed to stabilise her."

"What?" Joey demanded, midway through doing up his trousers and wheeling around to face her.

"Her soul wasn't stable." Serenity informed him, wincing slightly at her brother's tone but not turning around, "And I have no idea how she was still alive considering she had nothing left. We gave her an powerful energy restorative which pushed her back into the stable zone but we don't know when she'll wake up."

Joey scowled as he tapped his sister on her shoulder, having had no idea Hermione had been that badly off. She turned around to find him fully dressed. "What about the others?" He asked as she led him out into the corridor where there were several doors, all with pieces of paper taped to them with names on.

"Kaiba-San's in work." Serenity said as they passed the CEO's door, "Kaiba Mokuba's downstairs. Lovegood's with Potter, who is still sleeping off yesterday's summons..."

"When did Harry get here?" Joey asked with a frown.

"Sometime yesterday afternoon. Mutou-Sensei sent him and Valentine Mai over the moment they got to the shop, but kept Black Sirius at the shop. Valentine Mai returned to the shop this morning to give Mutou –Sensei a hand."

Joey nodded, understanding and hoping to get a chance to speak with Mai at some point soon, "And Yugi and Yami... I mean Atem?"

"The Pharaoh's just exhausted. A good night's sleep, maybe two, and he'll be fine." Serenity said, then her head turned towards Yugi's door, a look of concern crossing her face, "Yugi was in almost as bad a state as Hermione. An energy restorative pushed him back into the safe zone, but his energy is slower to recover then Granger-San's. We think it's because he's trying to support Potter-san and the Pharaoh even though he's got very little left himself, and we don't know how to block the link to stop him doing it."

"Typical Yuge." Joey sighed. "Ask Atem when he wakes up, he'll be able to close the link off so Yugi won't drain himself any further." Serenity nodded at his remark. "Where's Ombre?" Joey asked, noting that there was a door for her but it was wide open and the bed looked untouched.

"Granger-San's room. She refused to leave so we set up a camp bed in Granger-San's room for her." What Serenity didn't tell her brother was that Ombre had pretty much been banned from working in the shop until she'd had at least two day's rest.

Joey nodded and darted over to Hermione's door, knocking on it and waiting until he heard a muffled "Come in" before entering.

Inside the room the Doctors were just checking Hermione's charts and Ombre was in the process of getting up.

"Breakfast?" Joey asked Ombre, not looking as she pulled on pair of shorts and watched the Healer cast a much more complicated version of the diagnostic spell they had been taught. She frowned slightly as she caught a glimpse of the lights that floated in midair and shook her head. "Want me to bring breakfast to you?"

The spirit of the Orb of Light shook her head, too concerned for the teen on the bed. Joey let out a soft sigh. He understood why Ombre was worried, he didn't like to think about how close Hermione had come to dying and slightly ticked off with Seto for leaving her alone after they'd paired off, however he didn't know why Ombre was so reluctant to let Hermione out of her sight.

"Go and eat, Wheeler-San." Dr Hoshigawa practically ordered him out of the room, "We'll look after your friends."

Joey nodded, making a mental note to bring Ombre some food anyway since he was fully aware that it wasn't a good idea to let her get to the point where she was living off of her magic alone, and headed downstairs with his sister.

"You should..." The Healer trailed off when the Doctor put his hand on her arm and shook his head. He'd been treating the group for so long he knew them all rather well. Wheeler would bring Ironhide food, even if she told him not to. The blonde had done many times before.

"Ironhide-San." The Doctor turned to Ombre, "In all the fuss yesterday, I didn't get time to talk to you." He pulled a white envelope, which was decorated with black and silver kanji, out of his coat pocket and offered it to Ombre, "Please accept my condolences on the death of your sister. She was a lovely woman and she'll be missed."

"I thank you." Ombre replied quietly as she took the envelope, which, she knew, would have a monetary offering in, feeling like she'd suffered a heavy defeat. She had promised her fallen quasi-hikari that she would look after the girl on the bed and Hermione had nearly died. She hadn't been able to protect Kari and now she was failing Hermione. In her opinion she was obviously a very poor guardian. She never seemed to be where she was needed.

The Doctor nodded to her and turned back to their patient. There wasn't much else he could do for Ironhide Ombre, she was, after all, healthy physically and magically. Healer Akata watched the interaction and then made a note to question her colleague further, since he obviously knew the group they were treating rather well.

"Akata-Sempai, is this your cat?" Ombre as she bent down to pet the tabby cat that was wrapping itself around her legs, pausing when she noticed that the cat's tail was split down the middle, "You're not a normal cat..." Ombre growled, her Orb already glowing as she prepared to defend herself, Hermione and the doctors from this creature.

"Easy, Ironhide-San." Healer Akata said with a soft sigh as Ombre yelped as a flame appeared in front of her face and the cat darted under the bed, "That's Akane. She's one of the Shiragiku assigned to Kaiba-San's mansion."

"Shira..." Ombre trailed off as the Orb's light died down. "Oh..." She considered the gap under the bed where the cat was glowering at her from under it, "Sorry."

The cat responded by padding out from under the bed and giving Ombre a most disgruntled look before shapeshifting into a human woman with shoulder length black hair and amber eyes who at worst could be described as pretty and, if Ombre was right, would catch the attention of the guys when they saw her.

"Maybe you should ask before you throw your magic around." The woman hissed at her, looking irritated.

"I apologise, Akane-San, was it?" Ombre asked. The woman nodded, "I'm Ironhide Ombre."

"I know." Akane told her, looking smug, "I know about all of you. Those tiny fuzzballs are fun to pounce on and they talk nineteen to the dozen."

Ombre frowned, confused as to why the shapeshifter was still in one piece if she'd been pouncing on Kuriboh and where she'd found one to pounce on, "What are you?"

"Surely you've heard of Nekomata?" Akane feigned insult, "After all the 'Princess of Knowledge' should remember what she's been told about my kind."

Just the word Nekomata was enough to have the information tumbling into Ombre's mind. With her hikari gone and Atem's memories returned, she felt no need to pretend that she didn't know how to control the Orb's powers and memory banks, any guilt she had over remembering the lives of hundreds of past holders while Yami had nothing completely gone.

"I remember," Ombre nodded, "But how did you become an Auror? I was under the impression magical creatures couldn't join the Ministry."

"Your English Ministry maybe." Akane practically purred, "But the Japanese Ministry is much more... refined."

Ombre nodded, though she doubted that, unless the Japanese Ministry wasn't beholden to the same laws as the English one, that it was that much different. "Are all of the Shiragiku guarding the mansion like you?" She asked the magical cat.

Akane let out a sharp giggle, one Ombre hoped not to hear very often. "No, I'm the only Nekomata. My partner and his friend are here too though, but they're both human. Very boring. Now if you don't mind..." Akane shifted back into her true form and jumped up onto the desk, before circling for a moment and then settling down on her paws and staring at Ombre.

Which was fine, because the Spirit of the Orb decided she wasn't going to be intimidated by a feline and started staring back, much to the amusement of the healers.

"A hundred yen Akane-San looks away first." Dr Hoshigawa chuckled to his colleague.

"Make that two hundred and you're on."


	2. Regrouping

Healer Akata looked flustered as she rushed back into Harry's room. Harry and Luna were just starting on their lunch while Dr Hoshigawa took some notes and Serenity finished some paperwork. Akane lazed on the mantelpiece, quietly eyeing up Luna's sausages.

"Mutou-San's missing!" She told them in something of a panic.

Harry frowned, confused. He was easily able to sense Atem, though he'd had to close the link to Yugi temporarily to allow the heir to recover properly. He turned instinctively in the Pharaoh's direction.

"Which one?" Dr. Hoshigawa seemed less concerned then he should have been, considering everything. He slowly finished his notes as Akane stalked out of the room, her tail twitching.

"Mutou Yami."

"He's in Yugi's room." Harry and the Doctor spoke at the same time, causing Dr Hoshigawa to chuckle and Harry to sigh.

"Where you find one you'll generally find the other. I swear that link of theirs allows them to hone in on each other." The Doctor continued as he nodded to the pair of teens and left the room with Serenity and Akata in tow, "If anything I'm surprised that Potter-San's not in there with them."

"Potter-San appears to have some sense," The Healer muttered, "I take it Mutou-San doesn't?"

"There have been far too many people over the years who have tried to kill the Mutou twins and steal their power." The doctor explained, "I don't know the full details, but they're stronger when they're together so they don't like being apart."

"So that's why you recommended they have the same room." Akata nodded as Serenity bit her lower lip, knowing the full reason Yugi and Yami didn't like being apart, and Dr Hoshigawa's explanation was only half of it. "That reminds me, we must speak to Mutou-San about stopping the..." She trailed off as they entered the room only to find Atem was fast asleep in an armchair next to Yugi's bed.

Dr Hoshigawa hushed his colleagues as he made his way around the room, being careful not to startle the Pharaoh, having made that mistake before and not wanting to do it again.

"Mutou-San." He shook the Pharaoh's arm gently, "Mutou-San, wake up."

Atem started awake, bolting out of the chair as the Doctor backed up swiftly, putting his hands up apologetically as Atem growled at him in a language none of them could understand for a few seconds before freezing up, gaining an odd look as he turned to look in the direction of Harry's room before he turned back to them with an apologetic expression.

"I apologise." Atem said with a sigh, having been shocked out of his ancient memories by Harry speaking to him over the link, "That wasn't Japanese was it?"

"No." Dr Hoshigawa shook his head, "What was it?"

"Egyptian. I apologise if I slip..." Atem started apologising to the Doctor before pausing and blinking at Serenity as the fact she was there seeped into his head. "Serenity?"

"Hi Yami." She giggled, having had a similar reaction from everyone that had woken up so far today, wondering if it had really taken that long for her presence to sink into Yami's mind and watching as Akane jumped up on Yugi's bed and settled at the foot of it, "Don't blast the Shiragiku."

"What's a Shiragiku?" Atem asked, confused as he watched the twin tailed cat who was watching him back with an intrigued look on her face.

"A Japanese Auror, Mutou-San." Akata informed him. Something flickered across Atem's face, but none of them were fast enough to read it. The Healer continued speaking without giving him a chance to comment. "You're not supposed to be out of bed." She scolded him, earning herself an amused look from the Pharaoh and a chuckle from Dr. Hoshigawa.

"You appear to have me at a disadvantage." Atem said calmly, hiding his amusement, irritating Akata further by doing so, "You know my name but I don't know yours."

"Healer Akata Yuna." She told him sharply, casting the more detailed diagnosis spell over the Mutou twins with a wave of her wand as she did so and letting out a soft sigh as she read the kanji that floated above Yugi's unconscious form. "I see you've stopped the energy drain."

Atem nodded, remembering preventing Yugi from draining himself any further only to fall asleep in the chair next to him almost instantly.

"He's given me far too much of his energy in the last couple of days." The Pharaoh murmured softly, as he watched Yugi's chest rise and fall, still surprised they'd all made it out of the World of Memories alive and grateful beyond words for his hikari, without whom he wouldn't have done, "I just wish I had enough to reciprocate."

"That's not necessary." Serenity said, checking with her mentor that she was grabbing the right potion out of a bag at her side before passing it to Yami, who looked at it and then her in turn, "Energy Restorative, a mild one. It's not safe to have more than one strong one a day, you can get addicted to the high they provide."

Atem nodded his understanding and swiftly chugged the potion. He woke up a bit as the potion hit his system and looked around - he'd been a bit out of it both when he'd first gotten here and when he'd staggered from his room to Yugi's, not being quite aware of anything except that he was in a strange place and his hikari was draining himself. He hadn't taken in quite how large their rooms were or how lavishly decorated.

Somehow he'd thought Seto would have been more circumspect than to flaunt his wealth in their faces, but then it wasn't like Seto had had much time to get the place organised and Atem recognised the tactic that having the guest rooms this poshly decorated really was, having improved relations with foreign dignitaries by impressing them with Egypt's wealth in much the same manner.

A knock on the door caused all of them to jump and Serenity darted over to the door, opening it to reveal Joey laden down with a tray full of food, "Afternoon, Atem." Joey grinned at him, "Seems like I'm a waiter today." He commented as he slid the tray onto the desk at one side of the room and pulled a chair over, "Sleep well?"

Atem nodded, keeping a sharp eye on the doctors as they treated as he wandered over, having not realised how hungry he was until he'd caught the smell of a cooked meal.

"Am I this predictable?" He asked Joey who just chuckled.

"You and Yugi are as bad as each other." Joey snorted, not informing Atem that Tobias had informed him the moment Atem had started wandering the halls, more asleep than not. "At least Rich Boy's got a good cook. Hospital food is horrendous, even from the canteen."

Atem nodded his agreement as he tucked into his plate of food.

"I'm just glad you're not calling me Nen again." Joey shrugged as he sat down next to him, grinning at the Pharaoh when the smell of the food made Atem's stomach growl.

"When did I...?"

"When we were settling everyone in last night. I take it you don't remember."

Atem tried to think back to the previous day only to find that he did remember now he'd been reminded, but everything was a little hazy after he'd spoke to Luna, mostly because he'd been drifting in and out of sleep pretty much constantly and it probably didn't help that his soul room had changed rather drastically while he'd been asleep either.

The Puzzle's maze was still attached to it, somehow Atem didn't think that was ever going to change, but there was now a room between it and the corridor to the three rooms, a room that looked rather like his bedroom in the palace but had the balcony that he'd often visited when he needed to clear his head attached to it.

It was an unexpected, but pleasant surprise, as it gave him an excuse to go through his memories properly and meant that he finally had a proper Soul Room.

"Kind of," Atem shrugged, "I was so tired I wasn't really thinking straight. Did it again when Dr. Hoshigawa woke me up." He shot an apologetic look at the doctor who'd looked over when he'd heard his name and who smiled at him before turning back to his patient, "Only snapped out of Egyptian because Harry called me using the link."

"That bad?" Joey asked, concerned.

"We've," Joey knew that Atem meant Yugi too, "just had fourteen years worth of memories flood our minds. It's made a mess of our Soul Rooms." Atem paused and chuckled, "Not that Yugi's room hasn't always been disorganised but once we've worked out which items are which and tidied up a bit, we should stop pulling from the wrong set of memories."

"Wait, so Yuge's gunna have the same trouble? I thought you were the one who was supposed to get the memories, not him." Joey scowled, confused.

"Pharaoh Atem's memories were returned to him." Atem sighed, "And unfortunately we were both Pharaoh Atem, light and dark," He indicated each of them in turn, "Remember?"

"So you both got the memories." Joey nodded, understanding, but didn't get the chance to ask anything else as Mokuba entered the room, watched the doctors for a moment, then spotted them eating and came over.

"Atem, hi, the servants are in the process of setting up a twin room so you don't have to sleep in a chair," Mokuba said, looking a little harassed, "but it won't be ready till this evening."

"You don't have to..."

"There's a reason we used to insist on you and Yugi sharing a room in hospital, if you don't one of you ends up permanently sleeping in a chair," Mokuba waved it off, "Besides it's not a big issue, we have plenty of huge rooms and the servants are just pleased to actually have someone to look after. Seto and I aren't around very often and they get bored."

Atem let out a soft snort. Idle servants made for the worst gossips imaginable, so he could imagine that Seto was pleased that they finally had something to do too. "Thanks for letting me know."

"That's not all I came up here to tell you." Mokuba sighed, "There's a meeting going on in an hour and the Ministry want you there. Seto would have gotten you more time but they insisted that one of you Mutous have to be there."

"The Ministry?" Atem frowned, already wondering if he'd remembered to pack a bag with some clothes in and if so where he'd put it, since he had no intention of going into an important talk in sleep rumpled clothing.

"The Ministry of Magical Japan. They've been nothing but reasonable since this happened. Unlike the English one who..." Mokuba trailed off, his shoulders sinking and grief flickering across his face, "Seto told them what happened in the Game," Mokuba's eyes flickered to the medics who were trying not to listen to the conversation, hinting that Seto might not have told the Ministry everything, "But they want to speak with you. Only you and Yugi know everything that happened in Egypt."

"Why do they have to know that?" Joey demanded.

"Because this all stemmed from Egypt."

"No." Atem shook his head, "There were Shadow-Touched long before Egypt."

"What?"

"I remember everything." Atem told them, "And while the Millennium Items came from my father's time on the throne, the Millennium Tome they came from was written a long time before then and there were stories of Kings and Sorcerers who could summon monsters, right back as far as the days before Atlantis's fall."

"You're not seriously telling me that Atlantis existed and you knew where it was." Joey gawped at him.

"No." Atem's tone was incredibly derogatory, "Of course not. They were stories, Joey. Tales you told kids to get them to sleep at night. I'm just pointing out that there were tales of those who could call Ka beasts long before I could summon." He hesitated, not wanting to leave Yugi's side, "However I can share what I know and Mahado would..." Atem trailed off, a pensive look crossing his face for just a moment.

"Yami?" Mokuba asked, concerned.

Joey watched as Atem drew the top card from his deck and considered it carefully, "You alright, Atem?"

"Yes, but..." He looked at the healers then back to Joey, "Keep an eye on Yugi for me?" He asked, though Joey could see that he didn't really want to leave the side of his other self, "I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Sure, it's not like I have plans or anything. Not until all this gets sorted out." Joey shrugged, not really sure what was going to come from the events of the last couple of days and unsure what he'd be doing by the end of it, "I'm just the muscle after all, I don't have a say in this."

"You're not just the muscle." Atem growled at him, meaning every word of it, "I need you with me when I speak to the Ministry."

"Me?" Joey looked surprised, "Why me? I'm not..."

"You're Shadow-Touched," Atem replied, "And you're from this time. It won't matter that I've been around for nine years, they could still dismiss my comments as belonging to a past age, I need you with me. You know how it feels to be dropped in the middle of this mess. You can speak for the new summoners where I can't. I chose this, they didn't."

Joey looked shocked, but he nodded his understanding and brushed some crumbs off of his top, frowning slightly when he realised he had nothing smart he could wear.

"I'll be right back." Atem darted back into the room that had his name on the door and closed the door, taking a deep breath before calling out with both voice and magic, "Mahado, come forth."

The Purple Dark Magician appeared in a swirl of Shadows and bowed to him. "My Pharaoh, how can I help?"

"Rise, my friend. We need to talk."

Mahado tilted his head at the Pharaoh, curious, "How is Prince Yugi?"

"He's..." Atem sighed, causing Mahado to give him a concerned look, "He'll be fine, but he sacrificed almost all of his Ba to revive me. I'd be dead if it wasn't for him." Atem's shoulders sank momentarily and Mahado put a hand on his shoulder reassuringly.

For the very first time Atem flinched away, guilt obvious on his face, "Mahado, I didn't... I should have..." Atem hesitated for a moment, then, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"My Pharaoh?" Mahado asked, confused and concerned by the Pharaoh's tone of voice, having never heard Atem speak with that much emotional pain and guilt in his voice.

"You...I..." Atem didn't know how to put what he wanted to say to the man who had been his childhood friend and guardian and who had become the Dark Magician in order to continue to help him even after death. He'd had it all planned out in his head just moments ago, but now he was face to face with Mahado, he'd forgotten it all and in the end he settled for, "I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to apologise to me for."

"I do." Atem shook his head, "You surrendered your eternity for me and I forgot you..."

Mahado considered his friend and Duelist carefully before speaking, having wondered how this conversation would go thousands of times over the last five thousand years. "You had no choice but to forget me. The whole world would have been destroyed by Zorc if you hadn't." Mahado gave him a small smile, "Besides, you didn't truly forget me. How many other monsters stronger then I have you passed up in favour of keeping me in your deck and at your side?"

Mahado's question didn't ease Atem's concern. In fact it just added to the problem. "I had no idea you were who you were and..." Atem's tone gained hints of betrayal, "You didn't tell me either."

"I didn't tell you because I couldn't tell you what you were so desperate to know." Mahado admitted, looking ashamed, "Not when time and magic had ripped the answers from me. If I could have done so, I would have, believe me, my Pharaoh."

Atem stared at him for a few moments, then his shoulders sank and he nodded, accepting Mahado's words. Five thousand years was a very long time after all.

"Mahado, I was hoping..." Atem said when he finally spoke again, trailing off towards the tail end of his sentence, looking half embarrassed and half like he wasn't sure it was a good idea.

"My Pharaoh?"

"Would you call me Atem?" Mahado stared at the Pharaoh in shock, "Please?"

"I'm..."

"We're friends, aren't we? And friends use each other's given name."

"It's not proper..."

"We're not in Egypt Mahado, and the throne isn't going to be mine for much longer. It'll be Yugi's soon." Mahado frowned slightly but nodded at Atem's comment, remembering the Capsule Monsters game all too well, "Besides, you've more than earned the right to use my name after everything we've been through together."

Confusion crossed Mahado's features for a moment, then his expression changed, becoming an odd combination of happiness and uncertainty, "I would be honoured, my Pha... Atem."

"Thank you Mahado." Atem smiled at him, "I have another favour to ask of you..."

"If I can help in anyway, I will, you know that, m... Atem."

"I do." Atem nodded, "Here's what I need you to do..."

* * *

"Kame Game Shop, Sirius Black..." Sirius trailed off, his eyes widening as he listened to who was on the other end of the phone, "Arthur, give me a second..." Disconnecting the portable phone from its charger cable, he waved at Solomon and indicated that he was heading out to the stock room.

He headed out the back when Solomon nodded, unconcerned since there were very few customers who were actually here to buy things and the ones that only wanted answers, answers that those at the shop didn't have or were unwilling to give, were generally easily scared off by Airo, who was patiently hovering just inside the doorway, keeping a sharp eye on Mai, who could have really done with having a rest like the rest of the Shadow-Touched but had come here to help instead. Also, Tobias was curled up on the roof, having been sent to guard the shop by Joey. His sharp, red eyes watched the people coming and going – it was rather unsettling to potential customers.

"Okay, I'm available now." Sirius said, shutting the door behind him and watching a beetle scuttle along the floor. Something about it seemed odd, but he couldn't quite work out what. He went to step on it as he continued speaking only for it to dart under a box, he dismissed it for the time being as he turned back to his conversation, "I need to ask you a question before I answer any of yours."

"Go on."

"What was the first thing you said to me after I was cleared of murdering Lily and James?" He asked, needing to confirm it really was Arthur before he gave away any information that could be used against them.

"I'm sorry, I should have known better than to think you'd betray someone who'd treated you like their brother."

Sirius relaxed slightly when Arthur quoted himself word for word, "Is everyone alright?"

"Everyone's alright, but after what we heard yesterday, I should be asking you that." Mr Weasley replied, sounding concerned, "What happened yesterday?"

"Bakura bloody Malfoy summoned a demon that nearly destroyed the world and while the Mutou twins were fighting it, the rest of us were attacked by those bloody shadow creatures." Sirius informed him, his tone sharp and angry, quite understandable considering the circumstances, "Yugi and Hermione were nearly killed, Yami wouldn't have survived if Yugi hadn't gotten to him in time, Joey and Kaiba are knackered and Harry used up far too much magic and is currently recovering with the others in Kaiba's mansion, plus Luna was dropped off here by her Deck Leader because her father lost his soul during the Attack." Sirius listed off, "What about your lot?"

"Fred, George, Ron and Ginny gave us a shock, summoned monsters from their deck during the Attack, but other than the fact they're tired everyone's ok." Sirius's first words seeped into Arthur's head, "A demon, Sirius? Really?"

"Really." Sirius deadpanned, remembering the memory Ombre had drawn from Joey's head as he and Yami had tried to explain, "But Zorc wasn't anything like the Kelpies or Kappas, this was more like..." He didn't know how to describe it properly, "It was huge and incredibly dangerous and it was what summoned the Shadows to attack everyone. Yugi and Yami killed it though, nearly killed themselves in the process but..."

"And the Shadows just went away when Zorc died?" Arthur asked, thinking, though to Sirius it sounded like there were people speaking in the background, making Sirius wonder who else was there.

"No. Not really. They were sealed with Zorc but Bakura tore the wards down. The Shadows are still loose, but with Zorc dead, there shouldn't be another Attack like that."

"Can't new wards be put up?" Arthur asked.

"No. Not without..." Sirius trailed off. He had asked that question last night. In fact he'd repeatedly demanded the answer from the Pharaoh who had been so tired that he'd snapped and told Sirius exactly what he had given up in order to seal the Shadows the first time. Sirius hadn't liked the answer then either. "It was an extremely dark and powerful ritual that ripped the sacrifice's soul in two, trapping half of the sacrifice's soul in the dark for thousands of years and preventing the other half from moving on." Sirius heard Arthur's sharp intake of breath, "Without Zorc's rampage fuelling them, Yami told me that the Shadows should calm down. They only had to be sealed because of Zorc in the first place."

"Yami told you?" Arthur sounded confused, having been unaware that there were experts on the matter, "Yami Mutou? The twenty something year old? Brother to Yugi?"

"That's him. He knows more about the Shadows than anyone else alive. Probably because he and his brother have kept them at bay for the last nine years, no thanks to bloody Malfoy, who spent the last nine years trying to rip the wards down. Not that Dumbledore's offered them any help." There was no response to that and Sirius was semi-gratified to have silenced the Weasley patriarch, "What're your Shadow-Touched kids doing? If the ICoW want Harry and Hermione, I assume they want your kids brought in too."

"They're in hiding." Arthur responded, sounding like he wasn't sure he quite believed Sirius, "For now. We'll work something out."

"Find a way to send them over here," Sirius told him, "The Japanese Ministry's actually being useful. In fact I might move over here."

"Sirius!" Arthur sounded shocked.

"What?" Sirius was surprised that Arthur would be surprised, "It looks like my Godson won't be able to return to England anytime soon, and I see no need to leave him behind and return myself, not when I'm still treated like a criminal in England even though I've been cleared of all charges. Oh. That reminds me. Tell Dumbledore I quit would you?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean." Sirius snorted, "Tell Dumbledore I quit and before anyone accuses me, no I'm not going dark, I'm just fed up of not being told anything."

"But but but..."

"Were you aware that Yugi and Yami were the only line of defence between us and what happened yesterday?" Sirius asked, "Or that Dumbledore's been putting the entire world at risk by letting someone who wanted them both dead share their classes for the last four years? How about the fact that there have been Shadow Games regularly played at the school with souls on the line? And not just between the Item Holders? Harry's been caught up in one of them and Dumbledore never said a word to me about it."

"But what about the Order?" Sirius watched the strange beetle from earlier scuttle under the door to the shop as Arthur asked his question.

"What, exactly, was I going to be able to do? I don't have any say in the Ministry, Wormtail's probably already told the Death Eaters I'm an Animagus so I can't sneak around that way, no light family will listen to me..."

"That's not fair..."

"Arthur, you may listen to what I have to say but your wife dislikes me. A lot." Sirius growled, getting fed up with the conversation. The ones in the shop were more productive, "And most of the light families trust me about as far as they can throw me, except Andy's."

Arthur found he couldn't deny it, he did have a question though, "What about Voldemort?"

"What about him? James told me there's a Prophecy about Harry, but I don't know what it is and until I do I am not forcing my godson to return to England when there's people there who want to put him through some kangaroo court just for helping his friends out."

"Prophecy?" Arthur sounded confused.

"You didn't know about it." Sirius commented rather than asked. "Try asking Dumbledore. It's not like keeping it a secret is helping anyone. Voldemort already knows it."

"Does Harry know it?"

Sirius paused for a moment then... "I never thought to ask."

* * *

Luna was sat on the edge of the fountain in the middle of the Kaiba Mansion's huge back garden when Mokuba found her, dangling her fingers in the water to entice the fish up to the surface.

Instead of speaking, Mokuba sat down next to her. The whole Clan was still grieving for Kari, so he could kind of understand what she was going through, but it was a very different kind of grief, to lose a parent then to lose a close friend. Mokuba had been too young to really remember his parents properly when Gozabora had adopted him and his brother and there had certainly been no tears shed by the Kaiba brothers for him, so he wasn't really sure what to say.

"I think they're hungry." Luna finally spoke up, having come out into the gardens when the medics had asked for a little privacy while they did a few final checks and that if they were all clear, Harry would join her shortly.

"Huh?" Mokuba asked intelligently.

"The fish. They're nibbling at my fingers."

The normalcy of Luna's comment threw Mokuba for a moment. Then the younger Kaiba brother looked around for the groundskeepers, whose job it would be to feed the fish, hoping that they hadn't been outside during the Attack when he didn't spot them.

"It's easy to forget the little things when the whole world gets turned rightside up." Luna continued, "But that doesn't mean we should." She indicated the fish food tub that was on the floor next to Mokuba's foot.

Mokuba started, having completely missed it when he'd sat down and the pair of them fed the fish. It took him a moment or two to actually take in what she'd said.

"I'm not sure this counts as rightside up." He told her, well versed in Luna's oddities since she had been in his study group for the last couple of years, "Not when everything's going to change."

Luna didn't reply for a few moments, instead she stood there watching the fish as they darted to the surface to eat, then, with an odd, dreamy expression on her face and a completely flat tone Luna spoke.

**_"Recover Guardians, recover fast,_ **

**_The peace you have now will not last._ **

**_Another foe so dark in tone,_ **

**_Seeks to steal the Shadowed Throne._ **

**_Though new age comes with allies true,_ **

**_Not all will live to see the view._ **

**_Trust heart and soul when battles come,_ **

**_Both will start the new Kingdom._ **

**_Without Clan at hand and support from all,_ **

**_Into darkness this world will fall."_ **

"Luna?" Mokuba asked when she trailed off, concern obvious as he tried to go through what she'd said in his head. This wasn't the first time that Luna had just spouted something seemingly random, in fact he had a copy of the self updating diary that Rebecca had designed, after they'd worked out that Luna was a Seer, that wrote down what she was saying as she said it.

"Did I say something odd again?" Luna asked, curious.

Even with the tone of Luna's prophecy Mokuba couldn't help the amusement that flickered across his face. A lot of what his friend said was odd, even when she wasn't prophesying.

"Was it odder than usual?" Luna asked when she saw Mokuba's emotions shift from amusement back to worry.

"It was more worrying than usual; we're definitely going to have to tell the others this time. Let me go and get the diary and I'll show you." Mokuba started to dart towards his room, only for Luna to catch up with him as he reached the stairs.

"I'll come with you." She smiled at him reassuringly, "And we can work it out together."

"It's pretty clear this time." Mokuba informed her as he heard voices further down the corridor speaking in rapid and fluent Japanese, grateful for Luna's coherency this time. Some of Luna's prophecies were more like random collections of words then rhymes, while others were nothing more than simple sentences that would make sense after the fact, "But I can't remember eep!"

Mokuba squeaked as he careened around the corner only to bounce off of Harry, causing both of them to land on their butts on the floor.

"Ouch." Harry complained as the man he'd been talking to offered Harry a hand up while Luna giggled as she watched Mokuba get to his. "Is there a reason you're pretending to be a human bludger?" Harry asked the younger Kaiba brother as his companion chuckled at Harry's dead pan tone. Obviously Harry had been taking lessons from the Pharaoh.

"Yes... no... uhh..." Mokuba watched the Shiragiku that Harry had been talking to carefully. Not because he didn't think that he could do his job, but because he wasn't sure how much the Shiragiku knew and wasn't sure what the Japanese Ministry thought about Seers, since the English one seemed to be rather dismissive of them.

"Satomi Ichiro." The Shiragiku bowed to Mokuba, "Potter-San was just telling me about your 'awesome' theme park." Mokuba preened slightly at that, "I've been meaning to take the kids."

Mokuba made a note to get some complimentary tickets for the Shiragiku before he turned to Harry, "I need to talk to you, Harry. Privately."

"Excuse me Satomi-San." Harry bowed to the Shiragiku, as Mokuba realised that Harry had been speaking in Japanese and while he definitely had a gaijin accent, his fluency and shortcuts spoke of the language being his first, probably because he'd picked it up from someone who had been raised speaking Japanese.

"Of course Potter-San." Satomi bowed back, "I'll speak with you later. Kaiba-San, Lovegood-San." He nodded to each in turn before heading on down the corridor.

"So what's wrong?" Harry asked the moment that Satomi was out of sight, pausing to watch Akane walk past, tail in the air and a bug in her mouth, following her partner down the corridor.

"You know Luna's a Seer?" Mokuba asked.

Harry nodded, giving his girlfriend a worried look only to receive a small smile in return.

"You might want to come and read this, but try and keep a lid on your emotions till Yami..."

"Atem." Luna corrected him.

"Till _Atem_ ," Mokuba stressed the Pharaoh's name, "Comes out of his meeting."

"Why?" Harry asked, both concerned and curious.

"Because he isn't going to like this one bit." Mokuba said with a certainty that worried Harry.

Before he could reply though one of the servants found them and bowed to the group before looking at Mokuba, "Master Mokuba, the twin room's ready for the Mutous and there's a Taylor Tristan at the door to see you?"

"Tristan?" Mokuba asked, surprised. "Let him in and set up a room in case he needs a rest. In fact send him through to the library, I'll meet him there." The servant nodded and darted off, leaving the rest of them stood there. "I'll go and get the diary and meet you there." He told Harry and Luna, "It's on the ground floor, second door from the right in the entrance hall. If you need any more directions ask one of the servants."

With that Mokuba darted off.

"Diary?" Harry asked Luna, confused.

"Rebecca thought of it..." Luna started to explain as she ushered Harry towards the stairs.


	3. Meetings

When Ichiro had been informed that he was going to be part of the small group of Shiragiku that were going to protect those who had put an end to The Attack, he hadn't really know what to expect. Maybe a bunch of adults who had access to some unknown pool of knowledge that had allowed them to get rid of the 'Shadows' or a group of powerful old Madoushi who had been able to pool their resources and cast something that had scared away the darkness, in some back water section of town.

What he hadn't expected was to be looking after a group of young men and women between the ages of 14 and 23, some of whom were still unconscious more than twenty four hours after the battle and weren't expected to wake up for days yet. If that wasn't enough, they were in the largest and most expensive looking house he had ever seen, and it was making him quite uncomfortable.

Still, it could be much worse. The food was good, his charges were polite and he was on duty with his partner, a Nekomata called Akane and his fiancé, Fujitaka Rei. Normally he and Rei didn't get sent out on the same missions, but it had been insisted on that the trios who guarded the mansion knew each other well enough that no one could possibly infiltrate the group without it being noticed.

"Ichiro." He turned around at a growl from his partner, "We've got trouble."

The Madoushi frowned as he reached for his wand, wondering what could have happened considering that everything seemed to be calm around the house. "What's happened?"

"There's a bug in the mansion." The nekomata, who was four foot long from nose to tail tips, growled, her tails twitching, her ears flat against her head, "A weird one."

"What kind of weird bug?" Ichiro asked as he followed the feline down the hallway, semi-concerned and semi-amused by the way his partner's tails were twitching. Akane tended to get irritable about the smallest things, though with things the way they were at the moment, he could understand why she was wary of anything 'odd'.

"It wasn't a normal shape or size, it had these weird markings around its eyes and it smelt human." Akane complained as she led him to where she'd last seen the bug. "I caught it, but it escaped from me when I was startled by the butler." Akane huffed, "I should have eaten it."

"You know the boss doesn't like it when you eat the suspects." Ichiro teased, remembering the rare occasions that they'd been dragged into the office after Akane had done just that. It wouldn't have been as funny if the criminals in question hadn't decided that the best way to escape a nekomata was to transform themselves into mice. After that mistake they had practically asked for it.

"Yeah, yeah." Akane's tails twitched as she spoke, "I'll be good. Just keep an eye out for that bug, it's not normal."

"Nothing in this situation is normal." Ichiro snorted.

"Weird magic is nothing unusual." Akane snorted, used to the weird types of magic that made up her home country, "I just object to people invading private property."

Ichiro just nodded, acknowledging her point, after all they helped deal with the fall out from spirits and odd strains of magic regularly, it was something that was inevitable when the magicals and mundanes lived as close together as they did in Japan. The general consensus was that those who wanted to pay attention to it, like those who visited the mikos in the shrines, could do so, and those who didn't could go on with their daily lives and just ignore it.

"I'll do you a deal." Ichiro sighed at his partner, wondering if the bug in question was an animal spirit like his partner or something else entirely. If Akane was right and it smelt human, then he really couldn't let her eat it because it could be a person, "If it's just an odd bug, you can eat it. If it's something else we'll take it in, deal?"

"I suppose I can settle for that." Akane nodded, "But if I can't eat the bug, I want a big meal once we're off duty…"

"Akane, as long as we have a quiet shift, I'll get you a huge meal once we're done for the day." Ichiro promised, "Now, let's find this bug."

* * *

"Speaker Saitou," Atem offered a deep bow to the Speaker for Magical Japan, glad Seto had thought to give him a heads up on what everyone looked like in advance. It was something Seth would have done for him in the old days, though there hadn't been photos back in Ancient Egypt, "It's an honour to meet you."

"Mutou-San." The Speaker for Magical Japan bowed back, just as deeply. "I'd like to say the same but considering the circumstances…"

"I understand." Atem waved it off, confused momentarily by the way the Minister's bodyguards bristled at his actions until he remembered that he wasn't Pharaoh here and he was expected to show certain levels of respect for Minister Saitou. "This is my advisor, Mahado," He introduced the Dark Magician, who nodded to the man. To Atem's pleased surprise, Minister Saitou nodded back respectfully, "And my best friend, Wheeler Joseph." He gestured towards Joey who bowed respectfully to the Minister, "They will be able to answer any questions I cannot."

Seto snorted, semi-surprised that Atem would bring the Mutt, who never seemed to lose that street punk look no matter how hard he tried into such important talks... unless it was because, just as the Minister had his imposing bodyguards, Atem had Mahado and Joey to back him up and they weren't exactly easy to dismiss out of hand.

The Minister bowed in reply, looking amused as he straightened up, "Wheeler-San, I wondered if you'd be here. I have to thank you for everything you did during the Attack."

Since Joey had no idea what Kaiba had told the Ministry, he just nodded and watched as the Minister, Kaiba and Atem took seats before taking a leaf from Mahado's book and standing just behind Atem. The Pharaoh shot a look over his shoulder that was a combination of amusement and gratefulness before turning his full focus on the Minister.

"Before we begin, how is your brother?" The Speaker surprised Atem by showing concern for the health of his hikari, "I heard he nearly lost his life during the battle."

"It was close, but he will be fine." Atem reassured the Minister even as he mentally winced at this reminder of how close the pair of them had come to dying. He remembered enough political meetings to be almost certain that Saitou was asking out of pleasantries rather than actual concern. "The healers you've assigned to my friends and I are making sure of that."

"That's good news. You'd be surprised how many fans of you 'twins' appear to work in my Ministry." Minister Saitou nodded, with a small smile. The emphasis he put on 'twins' made Atem wonder just how much the Ministry knew. "And I'm afraid that number has risen after your actions yesterday."

Atem smiled slightly at his words, though part of him felt that the others deserved more praise for their actions yesterday then he did, especially Yugi, while the other was on guard since the Ministry obviously knew more than he had realised, "I thank you for the support that you are offering us though I must ask why it is only now that we are learning of the Ministry from our home country?"

"We've been aware of the Shadow Problem for a long time but while you and your, at the time, host Mutou Yugi were able to handle the problem without an international incident unfolding, we were content to let the situation lie. Of course we always had a backup plan just in case something went wrong but we didn't see that interference was necessary unless you failed to stop whatever was going on." The Minister informed him, "At the time it appeared to be the wisest course of action considering that you were the strongest of the Shadow Duellists around and we had no one who knew or understood what the Shadows were or why they had suddenly appeared here in Japan."

Atem, who had tensed up when they'd mentioned the fact Yugi had been his host, nodded slightly, wondering if he should have been much more careful about how he acted back then. Especially considering that the Dueling community had thought Yugi was bipolar, possessed or had a hidden twin somewhere that he only let out to duel.

It didn't help his mood that the Ministry had been aware of the Shadow magic in Domino long before he and his friends had been aware of the existence of wizards. It changed the state of play, tipping it in the Ministry's favour, since it meant that they were aware of a lot more than Atem had been willing to give up, at least at this point. However it did mean that there would be much less explanation needed, meaning the talks could go much faster.

"What changed?" Something had to have done, for them to suddenly be shipped to England when the Japanese Ministry had been aware of the situation and had been happy to leave them alone.

"Li Xuan."

Atem scowled at the man's name. They'd had many enemies over the years, some of whom had been worse than others, but there hadn't been many who had attempted to imitate the Shadows, and only he had used wand spells to create 'Shadow Games' of his own, using illusion creating spells, legilimency and unforgivables to make it look as if he could control the Shadows just as Atem himself could.

Atem had never forgiven the man for his invasion of Joey's mind or the pain he'd caused Kari. He'd been very lucky not to end up in a _real_ Shadow Game for his actions. It had only been the timely arrival of...

"The Aurors who arrested him." Atem twigged.

"Indeed." Saitou nodded, "He told them everything and with a little digging around," and a couple of cases of bribery, not that he told Atem that, "The International Confederation of Wizards found out about the Millennium Items and all of you."

"Which, I'm guessing, was when we were sent to Hogwarts." Atem half asked, half assumed correctly.

"I can assure you now that the Ministry for Magical Japan is done bowing to the demands of the Confederation." The Speaker looked ill amused, "While there were reasons for submitting to their whims four years ago, those are no longer an issue and we don't agree that the arrest and execution of the only people who understand what is going on is necessary at all."

"Thankfully." Joey muttered behind him, causing Atem to nod his agreement even as Mahado shot the blonde a sharp look.

"Seto informed me it's not recent events that you wish to speak of." Atem said, easily able to imagine the look that his guardian would be giving his friend and wanting to move the talks forward, "But those that happened five thousand years ago."

"Indeed." The Minister glanced at Seto, unsurprised but wondering what else of the talks that had been going on over the last twenty four hours had been shared with the man who had once been the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle. "Yesterday's Attack spawned from what happened while you were on the throne and…" The Minister paused when something flickered across Atem's face but he couldn't read emotions well enough to catch it. "Mutou-San?"

"The Attack yesterday was the result of not my orders, but the manipulation of a High Priest who served my father." Atem replied slowly, thinking how to word it without giving away exactly what had happened to cause Bakura to do what he had done. Not that he would ever be able to forget what had happened to the villagers of Kul Elna, nor should he, but informing the Ministry of it was bad idea, "However the Shadows were around a very long time before High Priest Akhenaden created the Millennium Items. They were created as focuses to allow us control the Shadows and do more with magic than call our personal Ka beasts, much like your wands are today."

That was as close to the truth as Atem would allow at this stage and, thankfully, it appeared to be enough for the Minister at least for now, though Atem could imagine that there would be questions later. "If the Shadows have always been around, why have they only reappeared in the last nine years?"

Atem frowned slightly as he tried to come up with a version of events that didn't mention the fact he'd torn his soul in two, "My country came under attack from the creature that Malfoy Bakura summoned yesterday and when I sealed it away, I sealed the Shadows at the same time."

"That's when you trapped yourself in the Puzzle?" The Minister asked, surprising Atem with his ability to put two and two together and get four, a refreshing change from the Ministries he'd dealt with before.

Atem nodded, "The spells didn't hold as well as they should have done though." He continued, "And by the time Yugi freed me, nine years ago, Bakura had been working for thousands of years, using various hosts, to weaken the seal. He finally managed to get the key to the seal yesterday morning. He freed Zorc, the creature that attacked Egypt, and unleashed the Shadows at the same. They rampaged because Zorc was controlling them, but now he's dead…"

"With all due respect, Mutou-San, if you could kill Zorc, why didn't you do so five thousand years ago?"

"I didn't have the power to kill Zorc back then." Atem admitted, though he hated admitting any shortcoming. "Otherwise I would have done."

"What changed?"

"Last time my priests were dead, dying or possessed and I was alone on the battlefield." Atem replied, not wanting to go into full details, "This time I had backup in the form of my friends and my brother."

Saitou nodded his understanding, not bringing up the fact that that acting as backup had nearly gotten some of the Pharaoh's friends killed.

"And before you ask," Atem could just see the next question coming, "It's not possible to seal the Shadows again. The spell was a last resort in Egypt and even if it was a viable option, which it isn't now Zorc's no longer around, drawing in the Shadows, creating a focal point... I'm the only person who knows the ritual and I don't know how it ended."

And there went one option out of the window. "What about the Duel Monsters? What is the situation there? I thought they were just drawings on cardboard, no offence meant," He looked at Mahado who shrugged back, "Not real, living, breathing magical creatures."

"Mahado knows the Monster World much better than I do." Atem informed the Minister, "I can tell you what I know, but he has spent the last five thousand years among the other Duel Monsters. He knows them better then I do."

"There's a world of monsters?" Saitou nearly choked on his surprise.

"They have to have somewhere to live when they're not answering to us Duellists." Atem replied with a small smile, remembering being just as surprised when he'd first found out.

"Then, please excuse me for asking but how do we control the flow of Monsters between the worlds and do we have any threats to worry about from that end?"

Atem looked to Mahado, gesturing for him to speak, "We don't have anything like Zorc to worry about and since the end of the war, there aren't any great battles going on." The Dark Magician said, thinking, "Not that the Monster World is peaceful by any stretch of the imagination. We have our own problems but there's nothing that should over spill to the human world. The Monsters in question don't have Duellists and have no reason to cause problems in the Human World even if they do make it here safely."

Atem made a mental note to ask Mahado about any problems he was having and wondered why he hadn't thought to ask before when Mahado spoke again, "As for controlling the flow of monsters between this world and ours, it'll be difficult. With the Shadows dispersed throughout the world and the Shadow-Touched all awakened, if the monsters sense that their Duellist is in danger they will come to help and taking the cards away won't help in certain cases."

"Certain cases?"

"Some Duel Monsters will only defend their Duellist if they're carrying their card on them, others, like myself, have chosen one Duellist and one Duellist only and know instinctively when they're in trouble." Joey coughed when Mahado said that, wondering when Yugi and Yami weren't in trouble, "So they'll come to their aid. Those ones are normally the Deck Leaders, or Partner Monsters. Not to mention that I don't doubt that people will be able to start summoning their Ka beasts now and those come from a person, rather than the Monster World."

Saitou blinked as he tried to take all of it in.

"What else would you like to know?" Atem asked, trying to hide his amusement, having often wondered how people outside their group would react to having a lot of the secrets that the Clan kept dumped on them at once.

Minister Saitou paused for a moment before nodding slightly and pulling out a notebook, causing Atem to groan mentally, "I have a list…"

' _This is going to be a long day.'_

* * *

"If you sneak one more of those Canary Creams in my food, Fred, I swear you'll be sneezing bats for a month." Ginny growled as she pointed her wand at the twin, who just gave her an innocent smile back.

"But sister dearest, how could you ever suspect us of sneaking them into _your_ food?" Fred protested, his eyes flickering towards Ron, who was sulking on the sofa nearest the fire, bored out of his mind.

"Indeed, we wouldn't dare aggravate our darling Summoner Sister." George agreed as Ginny paused, having noticed the emphasis on Fred's 'your', but added in a whisper, "But a certain brother who's still getting the hang of this summoning lark might be switching plates with her."

Ginny turned her glower on the unsuspecting Ronald, who had no idea that he was about to get an ear full and the twins snuck off while she was lambasting him. Not that they had anywhere in particular to go. Not while they were basically confined to the Room of Requirements.

Though they could understand why it was necessary, the four of them didn't really consider it fair that they were being punished for helping protect the school, especially when they hadn't been the only 'Shadow-Touched' students in the hall that day.

"So… how long do you think we'll be stuck in here?" Fred asked, laying back on one of the beds that were in one corner of their little 'Safe House' as their sister started shouting.

George didn't get to reply as the sound of the doors opening startled the pair of them into darting back into the main section in time to see Professors Moody and Lupin entering the room.

Before anyone could say a word, Ginny had drawn her wand and had trained it on the two much older, much better trained wizards, "Password?"

"Caput Draconis." Moody and Lupin answered in the same moment, causing Ginny to lower her wand.

"Sorry, Professors…" Ginny started but Moody shook his head with a gruff sounding bark of a laugh.

"No need to be sorry with reaction times like yours girl." He snorted, "You've been training with the Pharaoh and his ilk." It was a statement rather than a question, but she acknowledged the point with a nod. To be honest, Ginny missed training with her friends, it wasn't the same on her own and her brothers couldn't, or wouldn't, give her a challenge.

Ron shot Ginny a slightly envious look, well aware that his lack of training the previous year, up until just after New Years at least, had been his own fault with the way he had been acting towards the rest of the group, especially Harry, but unable to help wondering if that training was what was allowing her to summon much easier than he could.

"What's up, Professors?" Fred asked, lazing against the back of Ron's sofa, unconcerned if Dumbledore had sent them.

"We're moving you." Lupin said with a sharp look at the twin, wondering if the four of them understood the severity of the situation they were in. "To a new safe house."

"Why?" Ron asked, sitting up and suddenly looking a lot more interested.

"The Room of Requirements can be used by anyone and it wouldn't be too hard for someone who knows about the room to find you if they knew what to ask for." Lupin explained as Moody started using his wand to pack everything up, "So we're moving you to the Order's safe house."

"The Order?" Ginny asked, curious.

"The Order of the Phoenix." Lupin informed them, "And if you have to ask what it is, you're too young to join so don't bother asking…"

* * *

"Becs has been busy." Mokuba commented as he slid the open diary across the table, breaking up the conversation between Harry and Tristan about the events of the day before, "Have a look for yourself."

Harry had to clamp down hard on his emotions to ensure that nothing spiked across the link to Atem and disturbed the Pharaoh mid-meeting as he read through what had been written in the diary by the auto-update spell.

"You were right in that Atem's not going to like this." Harry commented as he read the line, 'Seeks to steal the Shadowed Throne' and next to it, in Rebecca's handwriting, 'WARN YUGI AND YAMI!'

"I don't like any of it." Tristan growled, having glanced it over. "It's going to be a headache from start to finish. I thought Memory World was supposed to be the end of crap like this. Yugi and Yami are supposed to be done." He glowered at the piece of paper and Luna edged away from him slightly only for Harry put his hand on hers, "No more prophecies, no more bad guys and no more death threats!"

"Apparently it wasn't." Harry said as he tried to think things through, turning to Mokuba as he did so, "You made this?"

"Rebecca helped." Mokuba shrugged, "We all have one. They're spelled to record Luna's prophecies and auto-update them all when someone writes in one of them using one of these quills." He showed them a quill with a blue band just below the feather, "We found out later about the English Ministry having a 'Hall of Prophecy' where they keep thousands of crystal spheres with prophecies in, but it seemed like the best idea at the time."

Harry and Tristan nodded, impressed. Neither of them had the slightest clue on how to start on something like this, yet alone would have been able to produce a finished product.

"So where do you think…" Mokuba trailed off as the door opened and the butler slipped through the door and bowed.

"Master Mokuba, your brother has a visitor, but…"

Mokuba blinked. They weren't expecting anyone, especially at the moment. "Who is it?"

"Pegasus Maximillian." Almost instantly the atmosphere in the room shifted as everyone but Luna, who hadn't met the man and only knew part of the tale tensed up.

"Where is he?" Mokuba got to his feet quickly. He may not like the man, but he was his brother's most important business partner. As such it was required that he play host until his brother was available to talk with him.

"I directed him to the study." The butler looked almost as uncomfortable as the rest of them felt, "And sent for refreshments…"

"Thank you." Mokuba nodded, heading for the door, "I'll be back in a minute." He told the others before stalking off in the direction of the study, rather irritated. It made sense for Pegasus to come and demand answers, especially considering that it was his game that was under fire after the insanity of yesterday, but he really really didn't like dealing with him.

Still, it had to be done. If only to keep Pegasus happy and the links between Kaiba Corp and Industrial Illusions strong...

Mokuba pushed his way into the room only to find Pegasus pacing the room irritably.

"Pegasus..." Mokuba bowed to the man, trying to control his emotions as he straightened, "My brother will be with you when he and Atem are done with the Ministry."

"Good." For the first time since Mokuba had met the man he didn't sound very amused, "There is a lot I need to speak with your brother about."

"Like what?" Mokuba asked, not having to feign curiosity.

"I need a word with your brother and the other Yugi-Boy," Pegasus replied, "As regards to actually getting some sort of warning when they decide to use my game to turn the world on its head."

"In their defence, neither Yugi nor Atem knew that was going to happen." Mokuba protested.

"Atem?"

"Yami's real name."

"Ah, I wondered why a ghost from that time period would be stuck on this side of the gates."

"You knew about…"

"There were bets being taken as to what was going on with the King of Games." Pegasus snorted. "If he wanted to stay a secret, he should have done a better job of hiding." Pegasus gave Mokuba an amused look, "Besides, you of all people should remember how the Yugi-boys saved your soul. Of course I was going to find out how one body could host two souls that were similar enough for the Shadows to accept them as one person."

Mokuba didn't dignify that with a response. Instead he tucked into the left over ice cream.

* * *

"I don't envy them," Joey told Harry, as they watched the chef flit around the kitchen, trying to ensure he was cooking enough for everyone living at the mansion, "Straight out of one meeting into the next and then we gotta tell them about that prophecy."

Harry watched a woman stalk past the kitchen before speaking up. "Atem's heading this way. Pegasus and Seto are talking business and Atem escaped as fast as possible. Something about having quite enough of politics for one day."

Joey chuckled, having seen how tired and irritable Atem had been by the end of the meeting with the Ministry. He could well imagine that Atem had been more than happy to escape the moment he hadn't been needed.

He also somehow doubted that the Pharoah was planning to do more than wave at them on his way up to the room he was to share with Yugi. His suspicions were confirmed when Atem didn't do more than nod in their general direction on his way past, and he made a mental note to take the Pharaoh's dinner up to him later. There wasn't much chance of him coming down again unless it was important or Yugi was with him.

"Are you sure this is enough, Wheeler-San?" The cook asked, concerned as Joey watched hungrily as the cook started putting out the evening meals.

"Even with everyone as hungry as they are, this'll be more than enough." Joey, who was still trying to work out how the servants knew when they were hungry and when to provide snack food as they had all day, reassured the cook, "And if it's not there's ice cream in the..."

"You're seriously considering it?" Mokuba's voice carried into the kitchen, causing everyone in the kitchen to freeze as they listened to the conversation. "After everything that's happened, you're still going to run this tournament?"

"Not letting the Kaiba Land Asia tournament run would be worse. Much worse." Seto sounded tired. The CEO obviously thought that there was no one around that he cared about hearing him. Then it hit the blonde Shadow Duellist. Seto hadn't had a decent amount of sleep since he'd come back from Memory World. Of course the CEO would be exhausted by now... "At the moment everyone still believes there's some fault with our technology, even with the stories that are being spread by the various media sources. If we don't host this tournament, then that rumour will never fade. Even pushing it back a couple of days has damaged our reputation enough."

"But the Exhibition Duels should help with that, right?" Mokuba asked, sounding worried.

"It'll help but it's not enough." Joey's eyes widened at Seto's tone of voice, "Not without being able to present both Yugi and Atem to the press and have them answer all of the questions that the press have."

"Wouldn't Atem be enough?"

"Atem would give them the answers, but without two or more collaborating stories without any outside influence, the truth won't be believed. Plus my old methods of getting what I wanted haven't been completely forgotten. If Atem appears on the scene, but Yugi doesn't, there will be rumours of blackmail and kidnapping and that's the last thing I need."

When Mokuba fell silent, Joey accompanied the butler out of the kitchen, barely glancing at Seto as he passed the CEO, knowing that Seto would prefer that no one see the moments of weakness, and if someone had to see them then it be only Mokuba. Even now, nine years down the line Seto didn't like admitting weakness around them.

That was fine. He could let Seto play that game when it wasn't that important. He did make a mental note to ensure Kaiba got some sleep though. Even the CEO of Kaiba Corp required a little rest sometimes, after all.

Harry caught up with them as they reached the stairs with an odd look on his face, but he didn't get to say anything as Sirius pulled his Godson off to one side, a question burning in his mind that needed to be answered. He had arrived just moments before they'd passed through the main hall.

Meanwhile Joey grabbed Atem's plate from the butler and scooted into the Mutous' bedroom. Atem was sat quietly on the edge of Yugi's bed, a softness and concern in his features that only Yugi could draw out of him, holding his light half's hand.

"Atem?" Joey whispered as he slid the trays onto the desk, worried for his friends.

"I'm wondering why we never thought to use magic to aid in our recovery before. At least outside of Hogwarts."

"Why?"

"I reopened the link to Yugi." Atem gained an embarrassed look for just a moment, than it was gone. "I think he'll wake up tomorrow."

"Really?" That was a surprise, "But it took you over a week to recover when Anubis..."

"We didn't have magic to boost our Ba back then. We didn't even think to use the magical hospitals." Atem shook his head, amused at their stupidity, "He won't be fully recovered," Atem turned the subject of their conversation back to his hikari, "his Ba's almost fully recovered. However his magic's still drained and his soul's still bruised..."

"At least he'll be awake though. Right?" Joey offered with a small smile and earned a rare one back from the Pharaoh. "I just hope Hermione comes around soon."

The smile vanished from Atem's face almost as quickly as it had arrived as he turned in the direction of Hermione's room, as he remembered why Hermione was in the state she was.

"Me too."


	4. Awakening

"Do you two have to be here?" Molly asked, exasperated as the two spirits Daniel and Nathaniel, who made up the Double Costan that answered to her twin sons darted around the kitchen for the third day since the Attack, causing almost as much mischief as their summoners as she tried to cook breakfast.

 _Unless our Duellists say otherwise..._ Daniel started.

 _Here we will stay._ Nathaniel finished.

"Fred! George!"

The twins popped into the kitchen, literally, having passed their apparition tests just last week long ago, and made their mother jump a mile.

"Will you stop that!" Molly stormed at them, "You're as bad as your... your pets!"

_We are not pets!_

"They're not pets mum." Both sets of twins spoke at the same time, thoroughly creeping Molly out. She was used to twins syncing up or finishing each other's sentences, after all Fred and George weren't the only twins that did it, but this odd synchronisation of 'Duelist' and Monster was weird even for wizards.

However, Arthur bustled into the room before she could say anything else, reading the newspaper and looking a combination of concerned, angry and confused.

"Arthur?"

"Skeeter's up to her old tricks." He grimaced, "Listen to this...

**Shadowmorn, Preventable?**

_Our intrepid reporter has uncovered startling information that indicates that proud leader of the Wizarding community, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, not only knew that the terrible tragedy that struck worldwide two days ago was a possibility, but took steps to ensure its passing._

_Your faithful investigator's source, who wishes to remain anonymous for their own protection against these dangerous individuals was able to reveal details of the attack. Forced to turn to forbidden magics by the rogue Mutou clan ("Clan or Cult? Mutous revealed" Daily Prophet 27/02/94), adopted child of the ancient and noble Malfoy family Bakura (14) unwittingly released a spirit of unimaginable power: Shadow-Pharaoh Zorc._

_Mutou, our source reveals, was responsible for maintaining the magic that stopped the Shadow-Pharaoh from escaping. Undoubtedly, it is through the influence of known malcontent, Harry Potter (16), that these seals were allowed to weaken to the point where a poor, misguided boy taken in by a struggling, yet generous Pureblood family ("Malfoy: Ruined" Daily Prophet 25/10/91) was able to bring them down._

_As if these facts were not enough, it can be revealed that the Mutou clan have enslaved magical creatures to protect them from reprisals while they recover from their struggle to avoid the backlash from the Shadow Pharaoh's rampage. Pureblood scion Yugi Mutou (16), along with his Muggleborn serf Hermione Granger (14) remain comatose. It seems likely that soft-hearted Yugi stepped in to protect his loyal servant when Harry Potter and Yami Mutou (17) attempted to sacrifice her as part of the ritual that finally returned the Shadow Pharaoh to its seal. Concerns run high among the Japanese ministry that these two young heroes remain in the custody of these dangerous individuals._

_\- Rita Skeeter, your faithful newshound_

_Read more:_

_Best of Friends? Arthur Weasley and Sirius Black: The true story, page 16._

_Tragic death of rival newspaper: The secrets of Xenophilius Lovegood, page 12._

_Teenage Seer, discovered: Grieving Daughter forges on, page 6."_

Arthur had barely finished speaking before the kitchen exploded with enough noise to set the portrait in the hall off and by the time they'd managed to get the curtain across it, silencing the huge portrait of Sirius's mother, the entire house was awake and had either read the article for themselves or were wondering what had exploded and why.

"Skeeter's a bi... g elephant," Fred quickly changed what he was going to say when he saw the look his mother was giving him, "None of that is true, well besides the fact that it was Yugi and Yami preventing the seal being broken..."

"She even got everyone's ages wrong!" George added.

"Plus we're the Domino Clan, not the Mutou Clan." Ginny growled.

"It's Rita Skeeter." Lupin sighed explosively as he flicked to page 6, "Over eighty percent of what she comes out with are lies, plus that quick-quotes quill of hers is preprogrammed to take everything out of context." He frowned for a moment as he started reading, "No one ever mentioned that Luna's a Seer..."

Before he could say anything else Ginny had snatched the paper away from him and started reading, a sickly look on her face that gave the impression of a weird combination of 'uh oh', 'bloody hell' and 'oops' before flicking through a diary she pulled out of her pocket and scowling when she realised she'd missed a slew of updates.

"Ginny?"

"Why is it all the interesting stuff happens while they're abroad?" She grumbled, ignoring the adults as she quickly scrawled something in the diary and shoved the book back into her pocket.

"Children." At her mother's warning tone the girl paid more attention and her brothers froze, having been midway out of the door when Molly had spoken. "What else haven't you told us?"

Ginny tried to remember exactly what she and her brothers had told the adults involved in the Order of the Phoenix during the debriefing they'd had just after the battle in the Great Hall during Shadowmorn. Her brothers, very helpfully, settled at the table and tucked into the breakfast that had been laid out in order to avoid talking.

"What do you mean?" Ginny asked her mother, hoping that pulling off an innocent look would allow her to get away without spilling any other secrets that weren't really hers to spill.

No such luck.

"What else are you hiding? What other powers do your friends have that you haven't told us? How long have you known Luna was a Seer?"

"Uhhh..." Ginny looked to her brothers for assistance... "I don't know how much I can tell you..."

"Ginny. Tell us now or you'll be spending the rest of eternity cleaning the house from top to bottom and working for the House Elf..." Molly growled at her daughter.

"They're not my secrets to share..."

"Then share what you're allowed to share and we'll get the rest from the others when we see them." Lupin nudged the girl, noting that Molly's head on approach didn't appear to be working and rather impressed at the bravery the girl showed standing up to her mother to protect her friends.

Ginny hesitated a moment longer, biting her lower lip as she did so, then nodded, "Well... I suppose there's a few things that they wouldn't mind me sharing... I mean pretty much everyone at school knows about things like the Shadow Realm. The Malfoys kept spreading horror stories about it..."

"Then start there."

"Alright..."

* * *

"Atem, you awake?" Joey asked, poking his head in the door to the room the Mutou 'twins' were sharing.

"No." The Pharaoh grouched at him, rolling over as he did so and pulling a pillow over his head, "Come back in an hour."

Joey chuckled as he slipped inside the room. He was tempted to send Akane in when she started work at ten to wake him up via four feet and 60 pounds of cat to the face, but deciding against it, "The Speaker's here. I'm not sure I can tell him to wait another hour."

Atem scowled as he sat up and glowered at the clock on his bedside table, "The Speaker's here at half past seven in the morning why?"

"Something about needing to know how Shadow Touched were policed back in your time..." Just Joey's words were enough to have Atem groaning.

"Fine, fine. I'll be down in a minute..." Joey turned to leave and closed the door behind him just as Atem asked the world in general where he'd put his bag with his spare clothes in.

The blonde grinned, well aware that Atem hadn't been a morning person since long before he'd gotten his body back. He'd asked the Pharaoh about it one cold winter morning while they'd been at Hogwarts and Atem had merely replied that it was "no longer necessary to rise with the sun and he was more than happy to stay curled up in his nice warm bed, thank you, and yes he would be up in time for class. Now go away."

A highly disgruntled looking Atem exited the bedroom not more than five minutes later, ordering Joey to stay with Yugi in case he woke up. He stalked downstairs, leaving Joey very glad that he wasn't the Minister. A newly woken Yami had never been particularly fun to deal with and he could imagine that now he had his memories and royal attitude back, dealing with a barely awake Atem would be even worse.

It wasn't long before Joey had company. Atem's foul mood had woken Harry, who had brought his spare cards through in order to work on his deck while Luna popped down to the kitchens to get breakfast.

"You're in an exhibition match today, aren't you?" Joey asked as Harry considered his cards carefully.

"The Wolf Prince against the Harpie Queen," The teenager nodded semi distractedly. "Mai and I have been duelling against each other so I need to change my deck, otherwise she'll know everything in it. You've got Seto tomorrow, haven't you?"

"Uh huh. Time to beat him on a much more public scale." Joey smirked, then he paused, "Sorry about the party, by the way..."

Harry blinked at him, confusion obvious. He hadn't really thought about his birthday bar a passing thought when he'd woken up first thing on Monday and realised that he was, in fact, fifteen years old now. With everything that had happened over the last few days he hadn't expected his friends to bring it up.

"It doesn't matter..." Harry shrugged. He'd known his friends had had a party planned for this evening, back when they'd thought they'd be gathering at the hotel in Kaibaland ready to fight in the finals the following morning. After everything that had happened over the last couple of days Harry would have been surprised if anyone remembered those plans, especially with the mood Atem was in. He could hardly blame them.

"You know what I'd like to know?" Harry asked, garnering an apologetic look from the other duellist as he frowned at the pair of cards in his hand. "What's Seto doing about the Duellists who booked spaces in the hotels in Kaibaland? I mean we're lucky. We have places to stay locally, but some of the others..."

"You'd have to ask Mokuba. He's got more idea of what his brother's doing than I do." Joey shrugged, wondering how long Kaiba would suffer having them living in his house before they were evicted and had to find somewhere else to sleep. "I'd have thought he was trying to sort it out. After all, he really wants this tournament to go without a hitch."

"Maybe we shouldn't compete then." A third voice spoke up. Harry's eyes shot towards the bed, but Joey just continued talking.

"Na, at this point it doesn't really..." The blonde trailed off as he realised who had spoken and he turned towards the bed to find amethyst eyes watching them as their owner slowly sat up, a small smile gracing his features.

"Hey guys."

"Yuge!" Joey's face lit up and he practically crushed his friend in a hug, pulling away quickly when Yugi gasped out something about needing to breathe. "You finally woke up!"

"Am I the last?" Yugi asked, biting his lower lip as he did so, looking concerned.

"Hermione's still out." Harry shook his head, wishing he had some better news for his friend. He reopened the link, noting the worry that spiked through Yugi at the news, "But the healers say she should be fine. Everyone else is up and about. All our friends survived the Attack too."

"What happened to Hermione? And what 'Attack'?" Yugi's asked, his words coming out as an irritated demand, throwing both of his friends, "What has been going on?"

"You've been unconscious for two and a half days, Yuge. There's a lot to tell you." Joey frowned. Harry gently nudged the link, something that he had been doing more and more recently to help Atem keep his mind in the present, causing Yugi to blink at him. Harry felt his friend's emotions shift, the irritation fading to be replaced by a much more Yugi like concern. "While we were fighting Zorc in the Memory World, the Shadows were swarming the real world..."

Yugi's face went as close to white as possible as shock and fear set in heavily. Harry found it unsurprising, considering how hard Yugi and his friends had fought over the years to prevent just that from happening.

' _Yugi?'_ That Atem would respond to Yugi's surge of emotions was also unsurprising and the sheer relief and delight in the Pharaoh's tone and his emotions was obvious. _'Thank Ra you're awake.'_

" _Sorry to worry you..."_ Harry felt a little like an intruder as he felt Atem send reassurance over the link and felt Yugi's mind subconsciously respond to the self conditioning of almost a decade, causing Yugi's face to regain some of its colour and his emotions to unwind slightly.

"You alright Yuge?" Joey asked, concerned for his friend and wondering if there was something left over from the Shadow Game that he hadn't been aware of.

"Yes, I'm fine." Yugi nodded at him, promising the Pharaoh that he'd speak to him when Atem got out of his meeting, "But what happened? I thought the Shadows couldn't be released without Yami and I dying..."

Harry scowled slightly, "We thought you were dead. I don't know what happened in the Memory World to cause it, but Wolf told me you'd been killed."

Memories flickered across Yugi's mind, both from the ancient past and from much more recent history and Harry managed to catch some of them. One of those memories threw the teenager completely and he just stared at his friend, waiting for a moment to voice his question, "It's possible that the Shadows were freed either when Zorc was released in the Game, even if he couldn't escape without killing Atem, or before I got the chance to..."

Joey just nodded as Yugi trailed off, thinking either possibility valid but Harry just stared at his friend.

"You brought Yami back from the dead?" Harry stated in a shocked tone that made Yugi wince, "How?"

"It wasn't technically... Okay in the game world he was dead but..." Yugi sighed, trying to work out exactly what he had done for himself, "Basically since he and I are the same person, half of Atem's power was with me when Zorc killed the 'avatar' or game piece that represented Atem in the Game. I gave up my life points to restore that power to him and pull the 'real' Atem back from the Shadow Realm. I think it worked because it was still his power and with it restored to his avatar he still technically had Ba, so he hadn't technically lost, but..." Yugi shook his head, "You guys have about as much clue as I do."

"So could you do that any other time?" Harry asked, wondering if Ombre could have saved Kari if they had truly been a yami and hikari pair.

"I don't know and no offence but I'd rather not try it." Yugi shook his head as he spoke, "I mean it might be possible, we've saved each other's lives before, but that was the first time one of us has ever tried bringing the other back from the dead and to be honest I wasn't sure it was going to work. It was more an act of desperation than anything. I'm just glad it worked."

"You're not the only one." Joey snorted. "I like living, thanks."

Guilt crossed Yugi's features, making Harry wonder what exactly had happened while they were inside the game. If Harry asked, Yugi would share the memories with him, but he wasn't sure he wanted to take the risk. If Yugi's memories were as disorganised as Atem's it was possible that Harry would get the ancient memories of the fight with Zorc rather than the modern ones. Somehow he didn't think that anyone needed three versions of the same ancient Pharaoh wandering around. One was bad enough and Harry had a feeling that unless someone helped Yugi keep on track, there would be two of them on occasion...

Yugi went to get out of bed and found himself blocked by Joey, causing confusion to cross his features. "What...?"

"Kaiba called in Dr. Hoshigawa, Yuge." Joey warned, in the same sort of tone that the gang often used when talking about Madam Pomfrey, one of fearful respect, "And you know he's going to want to see you before you get out of bed."

"But I'm hungry..." Harry stared at his friend whose complaint had been punctuated by his stomach rumbling, pretty certain that was as close to whiny brat mode as he had ever heard from the twenty three year old who he'd shared a dorm room with for the last four years.

Joey just chuckled however. "Tell you what, you stay here and I'll get the Healers and go get you something to..."

"No need to get us, Wheeler-San." Healer Akata spoke as she walked into the room, followed by Dr. Hoshigawa and Serenity, who waved cheekily at Yugi, "We were just about to start our rounds anyway."

Joey blinked at the clock, becoming surprised when he realised that it was eight already, before his mood shifted towards amusement at the look of surprise on Yugi's face that had dawned when Serenity had appeared with the healers.

"I would recommend that you and Potter-San go and get him something to eat though." Dr. Hoshigawa basically dismissed them from the room, "After all you lot eat like horses when you first wake up after these things."

Joey chuckled nervously, making Yugi wonder how much Joey had cost Seto on food already, before leaving with Harry, abandoning him to the three healers' tender mercies.

"Good morning Mutou-San." Akata spoke, bowing to Yugi, who bowed back as best he could from his bed, "Now your friends are out of the room, how are you feeling?"

Yugi had learned better than to lie to the Doctors over the years and considered himself carefully before he answered. "My Ba's almost fully restored and I feel fine in myself, no headaches or exhaustion, unlike the last time, but..." A look of confusion crossed Yugi's features, "I feel weird, drained somehow..."

"I have a couple of tests I'd like to go through with you, Mutou-San." The Doctor told his patient as Serenity started casting diagnostic spells, "Then I think my colleague has a couple..."

"If I might ask," Yugi spoke, looking to the unknown healer when Akata nodded, "Who are you? And where am I?"

"You're in the Kaiba Mansion." Yugi's regular doctor explained, amused by his colleagues' surprise that Yugi hadn't asked anyone before now considering that Yugi had probably been more concerned with the health and safety of his friends than his surroundings, "Kaiba-San visited the Game Shop Tuesday afternoon and noted the complete lack of space available. So he had you all moved here for treatment."

"I'll have to thank him later." Yugi nodded.

"And this is my colleague, Healer Akata Yuna. I believe you already know her apprentice." Hoshigawa continued, "They've been assigned to your cases by the Ministry."

"Uh oh." Yugi face palmed. "We're in trouble, aren't we?"

"No, not with everything the Ministry, Kaiba-San and your brother have been up to. There aren't many who blame you lot for what happened. Malfoy Bakura on the other hand..." Hoshigawa scowled.

"What happened to Bakura?" Yugi asked, fully aware that Bakura would never have been allowed to stay within a hundred foot of them, but able to sense the Millennium Ring nearby. "Is he under arrest or..."

"You don't know?" Akata asked as she cast her spells and Serenity took notes, "Malfoy Bakura is dead. Killed by his own actions."

Yugi's shoulders sank, though he'd half suspected that that would be the case as Hoshigawa took his blood pressure.

" _Yami?"_ He felt the Pharaoh stiffen slightly at Yugi's call, _"Sorry but what happened to Shadi and the Millennium Ring?"_

' _I haven't seen Shadi in years, but the Key and the Scales are in Seto's private vault along with the Ring.'_ Atem sent back, _'Seto found them by the tablet.'_

" _Shadi was the one who helped us get into the Puzzle when you were sucked into the Memory World."_ Yugi informed the Pharaoh, _"We lost track of him once we split up. Joey and I headed for your tomb, Seto and Hermione went to the palace and Shadi disappeared completely. I figured he went to find you..."_

Yugi trailed off when the Healer gave him a funny look. "Are you sure there's nothing else wrong, Mutou-San?"

"No, no." Yugi hastily reassured her as Hoshigawa undid the arm cuff and took a blood sample, "I was just thinking." At someone else, but she didn't need to know that.

"Well everything seems to be fine." Akata nodded with a slight frown, "But I've one concern..." She passed him his wand, "Cast a basic levitation spell please."

Yugi nodded, though a frown graced his features as he took the golden stick from the Healer. It didn't feel the same in his hand. It felt almost lifeless... He pointed his wand at the cup on his bedside table, "Wingardium Leviosa."

It didn't move.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

Once again the cup stayed exactly where it was.

Yugi frowned and tried to draw from the well of magic that was inside him only to find that it was almost dry. There was almost nothing there for him to call on. "Uh..."

"I was afraid of this." Akata sighed, "We were able to restore your life energy but your magic's another matter."

"It's not the first time I've used up almost my entire store." Yugi murmured, "It always comes back before I wake up though..."

"Ah but normally I don't have magic to aid the healing process." Hoshigawa spoke up, frowning, "Akata-Sensei's potions woke you up much faster than anything I've managed to come up with so far."

"It's possible that when he recovers the Muggle way, his magic regenerates at the same rate as his... you call Ki 'Ba', don't you?" Yugi nodded at Serenity's question, "Ba. However our potions topped up his Ba without touching his magical reserves..."

"So he's still running on empty magically speaking," Akata sounded thoughtful as she spoke, "But has enough life energy to be awake and coherent... huh...interesting..." Yugi sighed lightly at being spoken about as if he wasn't there and got a small, amused smile from the Muggle Doctor who was packing up his equipment.

The doctors continued to talk as they left the room after ordering Yugi to stay in bed unless he wanted them to set Atem on him. Joey slipped in behind them with a huge tray of food.

"Feeling hungry, Yuge?" Joey grinned at him, the smile fading slightly when he saw the look on Yugi's face. "What'd the doctors say?"

Yugi, whose face lit up with relief when he managed to summon a tiny orb of light which hovered just above his palm only for his expression to dim when it went out by itself within seconds, let out a heavy sigh, "I'll be fine." He started tucking into his food, "You said you had a lot to tell me?"

Joey nodded as he stole food from Yugi's plate, frowning slightly but willing to let it go for now. "I'm just trying to work out where to start..."

* * *

"Atem, can I have a word?"

The Pharaoh paused, frustrated at being prevented from reaching his hikari's side yet again, having not yet had the chance to speak face to face with Yugi since the hikari had woken up. He quickly hid the irritation away, trying to ignore the amusement sent his way by both of his link partners, one of whom was still in bed at the orders of the Doctors, the other just stepping into a limo bound for Kaibaland Asia and his exhibition match with Mai.

Turning to face the speaker he found himself face to face with a wary Sirius Black, who bowed respectfully to the powerful wizard before him. Atem bowed back not quite as deeply, taking the moment to urge Harry to get going before he was late over the link before straightening and asking, "Of course."

"Privately."

Atem blinked at him but nodded, wondering what Sirius could possibly have to talk to him about that required privacy. He apologised to both his link partners and closed his end of the link before stepping into one of the small, intimate sitting rooms that seemed to take up most of the mansion.

"How can I help?" Atem asked as he settled on the arm of the sofa.

"I'm taking Dudley and heading back to England." Sirius replied, leaning against the door.

Atem blinked at him, a little surprised by this sudden turn around considering that Sirius had, only days ago, been talking about making the move to Japan a permanent one. "May I ask why?"

"I don't know if I should tell..." Sirius sighed when he caught the look on Yami's face, "It's better that you know now, rather than later. There's a prophecy."

"We know." Atem growled.

Sirius snorted, "Harry said that too. I don't mean the one Luna spouted the other day."

"You don't?" Atem instantly went on high alert, "There's another new prophecy?"

Sirius nearly asked about the derogatory and slightly frustrated way Atem said 'another' but he had much more important things to worry about.

"It's not really new. It's been around since before Harry was born. It's why Harry's parents were killed."

"And what does this prophecy say?" Atem asked in a low growl, wondering why such important information had been withheld from them. While Harry, Ron and Hermione were still underage, the others in the 'Gryffindor Seven' were not and Harry had proved himself to be capable of handling anything that was thrown against him...

"I'm not sure of the full details, but it's why Voldemort wants to kill Harry so badly." Sirius happened to agree with the Pharaoh's tone, "And it was important enough for Dumbledore to send Lily and James into hiding. That's why I'm going back. I want to see if I can find out what it is."

"You're leaving Harry behind?" Atem asked curiously, "Because of the ICoW?"

"Partly." Sirius allowed, "Partly because he's safer with you than he is with the Order right now."

"Order? What Order?"

"All I can tell you is that Dumbledore has brought the Order of the Phoenix together and they're working against Voldemort." The dog animagus informed him, "Even if they don't seem like it on occasion, they are on your side. Don't Shadow Game them."

"I wouldn't Shadow Ga..."

"You would if you thought they were a threat." Sirius interrupted him with an amused look that clearly stated he knew otherwise, "That's why I have a request for you..."

"Go on." Atem encouraged when Sirius trailed off.

"Guard Harry."

"Of course I'll..."

"I don't mean like you have been, like he's just another one of your friends. Guard him like you'd guard Yugi. Like he really is another piece of your soul, like the link you share pretends he is."

Atem watched Sirius carefully as the dog animagus continued.

"Dumbledore doesn't trust you. He never did. He only allowed you in the school because he thought he could manipulate Yugi into giving up the Puzzle and the power over the Shadows but apparently even his spells couldn't break the link between your souls. If you give him a chance, he'll try and talk Harry into going back to England, alone, for the Greater Good. You can't allow that to happen."

The Pharaoh scowled. "I won't. We caught onto the fact that Dumbledore was manipulating us a while ago, but it was necessary to return to Hogwarts, both because of our friends and because we didn't know anywhere else where we could get training in wand magic, since the Japanese Ministry didn't see fit to announce their presence to us before the Attack." Atem's scowl deepened as he spoke, "However I didn't realise that he'd spent the last four years trying to separate light and dark. He couldn't have known that doing so would have sent Yugi insane until after I was petrified during second year... Oh no..."

Sirius blinked as Atem's mood shifted completely. "Separate light and dark? What do you mean?"

"Remember what I explained the other day? About Pharaoh Atem's soul being split into two, leaving Yugi and I in his place?"

Sirius nodded.

"Well when our soul was split, it was divided into light, Yugi, and dark, me and before you say it dark doesn't mean evil." Atem growled irritably, having had quiet enough of that from various other sources. "But we weren't the only soul split into two, the Thief King that caused Zorc to rise during my reign in Egypt was also split in two. Those parts became Ryou Bakura, the light, and..."

"Bakura Malfoy." Sirius finished. "So what happens to Ryou now? I thought you said Yugi would go insane if he lost you."

"He would. He has, temporarily, before now." Atem grimaced, "Just as I did on the occasions I lost him."

"Then Ryou..."

"While you're in England, if you could keep an eye out for him, I would appreciate it. I'm hoping that the Tomb Robber set something up to support his hikari in the off chance he lost, but..." Atem sighed, "If he hasn't, Ryou's magic will become erratic, his mental state will slowly degenerate and eventually he'll burn himself out."

"I will do and if there's anything I can do to help him... wait..." Sirius paused and stared at Atem, "I thought you said you were planning on heading to the afterlife soon."

"I am." Atem nodded.

Sirius growled. If he'd been in dog form his hackles would have risen, "How can you even think about leaving when you know what it'll do to Yugi?"

Atem's shoulders sank. He'd thought about it many times. What his departure could do to his light. It was once of the reasons that Atem had hesitated so long to get his memories back. "We've been informed that there's one last task we need to perform before we can split. The Rite of the Duel. I phoned Ishizu to ask about it. Apparently the successor to the throne fights the current Pharaoh in a duel. I've been informed that when I can accept defeat gracefully and Yugi can defeat me at my most powerful, that is when we'll be able to split without either of us going crazy."

Sirius didn't say anything for a moment, but Atem watched as the dog animagus processed his words and then, finally, nodded, "Alright. But you and Yugi aren't allowed to do this 'Rite of the Duel' thing until I come back. Got it?"

"Even if you hadn't entrusted Harry's care to me, I wouldn't leave until after Voldemort was dealt with anyway." Yami promised.

"Good. " Sirius looked relieved, "Now, I should get my stuff up together. I plan on leaving before Harry gets back from his match."

"You're just going to leave without any explanation?" Now it was Atem's turn to show his anger at the other.

"Harry would understand..."

"Harry would look like he understood and Yugi and I would be the one who had to pick up the pieces." The Pharaoh snapped, "Have you even mentioned to Harry in passing that you were considering heading back to England? Or was he under the same impression I was. That you were planning on settling down here?"

"He knows someone has to go and find out the Prophecy, but he was talking about getting Dumbledore to come here rather than anyone going there."

"Do. Not. Leave. Before. Tonight." Atem growled at him.

"Why?" Sirius demanded, angry that Atem appeared to think he had the right to demand things of him as if he was one of his subjects.

"Because we've got something planned and you'll wreck it if you leave now..."

* * *

Harry drew, glanced at the card and then turned his attention back to the playing field, trying to ignore the roar of the crowds, wondering how long it would take for him to get as used to the crowds that surrounded any duel where there were big names competing.

Of course it didn't help his disconcert that half of the people here weren't here to cheer for Mai, who had been in the circuit much longer than Yugi and the others, but for the new guy. The up and coming Duellist that had been picked as the next major contender to go up against the past and present Kings of Games.

"Oi, Domino." Mai called across the space, startling Harry, who still wasn't used to people referring to him as 'Harry Domino', which was what it said on his Duellist ID as part of the disguise he used when Duelling in public, along with his bandana, his Muggle clothes and his contact lenses, oh how he loved contact lenses, minus the poking himself in the eye problem even if he couldn't seem to get them via Owl Post during term time... "Are you going to make a move or not?"

Harry considered the field carefully. He wasn't stupid. His Winged Wolf Pack, their attack points boosted by having others on the field with 'Wolf' in their name, should have been a match for Mai's Harpie's Pet Dragon, but he had a bad feeling about Mai's face down card. He'd hesitated to attack last turn because of it and it had cost him his Gold Winged Wolf and nearly cost him the last of his life points.

Having fought Mai multiple times over the last couple of months, he was pretty certain that the card Mai had face down was Harpy Lady Phoenix Formation, but then he'd thought that the last two times and he'd used up his spell and trap destroying cards destroying an inactivated Harpie's Hunting Ground and Mai's Mirror Wall trap.

He couldn't keep being cautious though. Not if he wanted to win and he did. Mai was the only one he'd ever gone up against in a tournament that had been able to defeat him on multiple occasions and though the pair of them were neck a neck now on wins and losses, here, when he knew that his friends would be watching online, he didn't want to lose.

"Alright Mai!" Harry called, throwing his arm forward and trying not to giggle at the thought that he'd picked up Atem's dramatic tendencies when it came to Duelling. "My Wolf Pack are going to tear your dragon apart!"

"Are you sure you want to be doing that?" Mai asked smugly.

Harry hesitated momentarily then nodded, "Winged Wolf Pack! Attack!"

The pack leapt at the dragon, whose 2700 attack points were no match for their 3100. The dragon exploded as Harry's wolves bit down on its neck and tail, taking out the rest of Mai's life points.

The crowd exploded with noise, both cheers and groans, a marked difference from how they had been at the start of the duel, when they'd been half afraid that the monsters being summoned would turn on them, just like the Zorc possessed Duel Monsters who had attacked after Yami's fall had.

"Well played, Harry." Mai shook his hand. "Of course you realise that during the tournament it's going to be a different matter, right?"

"We'll see." Harry had just enough time to smirk back before they were descended upon by the masses. Harry wriggled his way through, glad that he was only a couple of inches taller than Yugi, allowing him to slip through the crowds just as easily, leaving the much more experienced Mai to deal with the adoring fans while he used the loo.

He narrowly dodged the press, who had had a brief talk with both Duellists before their match started but hadn't seemed too interested in them after they'd basically told them the same thing as everyone else they'd asked about the fighting at Kaibaland and darted around the back of a ride, taking a short cut he'd noticed only to crash into someone. Literally.

He bounced back and landed on his butt, letting out a yelp that was more shock than pain, only to get an amused chuckle back in return, "Need a hand, Domino?"

Harry blinked and looked up at the sound of an American accent to find himself looking up at a tall woman with long black hair and brown eyes, who was offering him a hand up. He took it with a smile.

"Thank you." Harry nodded, "Are you here for the tournament?"

"That and a little bit more." She chuckled, "Mel Brown, a pleasure to meet the Winged Wolf Prince." She bowed jokingly, causing Harry to look embarrassed.

"No need to bow. I'm no one important." He informed her, unsure what to say now and trying not to think about his friends, who deserved this Duellist's respect far more than he did. "Wait, are you the Mel Brown who helped Tristan out during the Attack?"

"The Press are calling it Shadowmorn now." Mel informed him before pausing, "You know Tristan Taylor?"

"He's a friend of a friend." Harry explained, wary of telling any Duelist, no matter how nice they might seem, that he was friends with Yugi after all the tales he'd heard.

"Nice bloke, shame about who he's thrown his lot in with." Mel sighed wistfully.

"What?" Harry frowned, confused.

"Well, the King of Games presumes to make decisions for all of us without even asking anyone outside his group of friends. From what I hear he can't even be consulting with his brother, since Yugi's still comatose."

"No, he woke up today." Harry spoke before he thought then paused and looked at Mel properly, making a mental note to inform Atem that some Duellists objected to not being given a say in the rules being laid down, "Yami does have the most experience with the Shadows." He offered, frowning slightly.

"Still..." She sighed at him, "It doesn't seem fair to me. We should give him a piece of our mind. After all, he might listen to a powerful Shadow Touched like yourself, where those with weaker powers might fail..."

"Yami Mutou is a good person. What he's doing protects all of us from governments seeking vengeance for what happened on Tuesday." The scowl Harry gained seemed to frighten the woman, "Now if you don't mind, I'm leaving."

Harry turned to leave but the woman caught his arm. Almost instantly Wolf was at his side, snarling and baring his teeth at Mel.

"Just a warning Domino." Mel said as she let go of Harry's arm and backed off, "I've heard rumours that the Mutou dynasty might not last much longer."

* * *

Are you sure about this Yugi?" Atem asked, worried as Yugi ran his hand over the Millennium Key, which had been removed from the vault by Mokuba at Yugi's request, "I mean this could be dangerous. You should let me do it."

Yugi shook his head, "No, you need to be out here and aware, just in case someone comes calling. Besides, this was my daft idea and with Aylth's help I'll be perfectly fine."

Atem didn't like it. Though he agreed that Hermione should have woken before Yugi considering that Yugi had been draining himself to boost the strength of his link partners, he didn't think that letting Yugi do this was the best idea... "Yugi, you have no magic. If something happens..."

"Yami, Hermione's soul is in her body which means I should be entering her Soul Room and it's not like I'm going alone. Aylth's coming with me, she'll look after me, right Aylth?"

 _I'll protect Yugi from harm. I promise you that, my Pharaoh._ Aylth, the Millennium Witch who was captain of the forces within Hermione's deck, bowed to Atem.

It didn't ease the Pharaoh's concerns any. "I know one of us needs to stay out here to anchor the other but why does it have to be me."

"Because I can sense your soul easily and you can follow me using your magic. I'm going to have to borrow magic from you either way otherwise I'm basically a Muggle. It's better that you stay out here for now, in case something goes wrong while I'm gone, than I stay and you or Hermione get hurt. I can borrow just enough of your magic to use the Key and enter Hermione's Soul Room."

"I don't like it."

"I know you don't, Yami." The Pharaoh's scowl softened at Yugi's soft, almost pleading, tone, "But Hermione could be lost or trapped or hurt..."

"Alright, alright." Atem sighed, "I understand..." The Pharaoh pushed some of his magic over the link to his hikari, who accepted it with practised ease before picking up the Millennium Key.

 _Ready, Prince Yugi?_ Aylth asked, just as concerned as the Pharaoh.

"I'm ready." Yugi nodded, touching the tip of the Millennium Key to Hermione's forehead.

' _Be careful, Yugi...'_

Yugi turned the key.

* * *

"Black, we need to talk."

Sirius blinked and turned to look at Ombre, giving the young woman a soft smile as he spoke, "Ombre, hi. How can I help?"

"I'm coming with you."

"What?" Sirius practically barked, "You can't be serious."

"No, I believe that's your job."

Sirius paused at her dead pan tone and then couldn't help the snigger that escaped. "Hey, I'm glad to see your sense of humour's returning."

Ombre shot him a sharp look back, "I'm serious about going back to England with you though."

"Why? Why would you come back?" Sirius wanted to know, unwilling to take her into danger if it was for no good reason.

"Unlike the others, I wish to return to England. I'm going to leave the Orb here, but I can fulfil the duty bestowed upon me by my sister by going back and helping deal with Voldemort there, rather than hang back here with the others."

"Your duty?"

"Her last wishes." Ombre explained, pain entering her tone, "Protect her friends and look after Hermione. Hermione has plenty of guardians here and I, obviously, cannot protect her as I should have protected Kari, but there are many other ways of looking after people, and helping get rid of some of their more dangerous foes will go a long way towards that goal."

"You want to join the Order of the Phoenix." Sirius realised with a sharp intake of breath.

"Before you get the wrong idea, it's not that the others wouldn't fight. It's that they currently can't." Ombre defended her friends, "They can't afford to be away from reality for nine months of the year any more. Everyone is going to be looking to them for answers and stability. Nor can they return to England at the moment even if they were free to do so, not with the ICoW demanding blood. Since the death of my light, I appear to have slipped under their radar, so I should be fine re-entering the country."

Sirius nodded slightly though he took offence at the Wizarding World being classed as outside of reality, "And you know how to handle anything involving the Shadows that Voldemort might throw at us."

"I'm not as proficient as Yugi or Atem, but I have the knowledge and I have other skills. Plus the Shadows are frightened of me because I'm not one of theirs. I can be useful to the Order, either at school age or my 'true' age. On top of that, getting into the Order allows me a chance to get to know the people behind my friends and keep an eye on Dumbledore."

"You don't trust him."

Ombre snorted her amusement at the comment, "Of course not. Not after everything I've seen over the last four years. However he does hold a lot of sway and he is a danger to my friends if pushed the wrong way."

"You can't Shadow Game Dumbledore if he irritates you."

She just smirked. "Who said anything about Shadow Games, Black? My magic isn't of that type. I have a little of course, given to me by the Clan ritual, but my magic is of light."

"Okay, you can't 'Light' Game Dumbledore either."

"You have no idea what we're really capable of do you?" Ombre asked, sniggering at the idea of a 'Light Game'.

Sirius just shrugged. "I pick things up quickly enough."

"True." The Princess sighed.

"Going back to our previous topic, I'd be worried about your safety if you came back." Sirius brought the conversation back around and noticed Ombre's face grow guarded.

"Black..."

"Call me Sirius."

"Sirius, there's something you have to understand. My light is dead. This is as much about fulfilling her last wish as it is wanting to do something that can really help my friends before I go insane and fade away." Ombre sighed, "I've lasted longer than most because we were not a true hikari-yami pair, but the Orb gave Kari what she wanted, a dark to protect her from the world, and it made her my counterbalance. I may not truly be a split soul, but my mind, body and magic react as if I were. That was how I was created. So, just like any dark that's neglectful or idiotic enough to let their light die, I have a limited time left."

Sirius's mind couldn't get past one point, "You were created?"

"Technically, I suppose..." Ombre shrugged, "At the subconscious direction of the wielder of the Orb of Light a protector was created to guard she who wields the Orb's power. As she was subconsciously seeking a dark half, believing her soul to be torn in two due to the loss of her twin, the Orb reached into its memory banks and used, as its base, the wielder who looked closest to the holder at the time. A couple more subconsciously planted memories and here I am..."

"Can't you find another holder to sustain you?" Sirius asked, "Act as their yami, rather than fade away?"

"It doesn't work like that." Ombre shook her head. "For each yami and hikari there can be only one. Only one who balances them out. Only one who holds the key to their sanity. I wasn't created any differently." She paused, and then spoke thoughtfully, "Though Harry's recent addition to the Mutou twins leaves me with hope. After all, if someone can join the link, maybe I can forge a new one, but it would have to be with 'a half soul made whole'."

"Huh?"

"Only a twin who has lost their other half can use the Orb of Light." Ombre's face darkened, "And believe me you don't want to know about some of the rituals people used over the years in order to get access to the knowledge and power the Orb holds."

Even without the look on her face Sirius would have believed her. After all he knew plenty of people who would do insanely evil things just for a taste of the sort of power that Ombre and the others wielded so easily. "And you're leaving it behind?"

"It's safer with the Item holders then with me right now, especially after I return to England and I have other ways to defend myself. Using the Orb I can store memories and use telekinesis, using the powers the Orb gave me when I was formed, I can do so much more. Plus..." Suddenly her wand was in her hand and twirling between her fingers, "I can do plenty of damage with this."

"True." Sirius allowed. "Fine but I have one condition to you coming with me."

"Oh?" Ombre's left eyebrow raised, "What's that?"

" _You_ have to tell the others." Sirius grinned at the look Ombre gained, "No sneaking out the door tomorrow morning."

"But..."

"No." Sirius's tone grew sharp, "I know you have no intention of returning to Japan until this is all over and if your Orb doesn't fall into the hands of another 'half made whole', you'll fade away before that happens and never see them again. Don't take away their only chance of saying goodbye."

Ombre turned her face away and let out a heavy sigh. "Do you practise guilt tripping or does it come naturally?" She asked, her voice thick with emotion.

"I don't have to practice any more. I'm a Master in Guilt Trip Fu." Sirius replied, "Now come on. I know neither of us feel like it, but there's something this evening we should both attend..."

* * *

Harry was tired when he arrived back at the Kaiba Mansion. The Duel itself hadn't taken much out of him, but the whole set to with Mel and the press had made him fond of the idea of collapsing into bed. Unfortunately he was met at the door by a rather rushed looking Mokuba, who handed him an energy restorative and apologised, stating that he was needed in a meeting and would he please go down the hallway on the left, then take a right and then enter the main dining hall.

Even with those simple directions he got lost, eventually having to resort to attempting to sense Atem, who he knew would be in the meeting, only to find that both he and Yugi were blocking him for some unknown reason. This only served to irritate the teen further and when he finally reached the dining hall he was about ready to chew someone's head off.

Making a mental note to ask if they could have food brought into the meeting, Harry opened the door to find the room in pitch darkness.

"Hello?" Harry called, confused as to what was going on as he stepped into the room, drawing his wand with one hand and flipping the light switch with the other.

"SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

Harry jumped a mile and nearly dropped his wand at the wave of sound that hit him all at once as the lights came on and his friends all jumped out.

"W...What?" Harry demanded, heart hammering away in his chest as he looked around with zero comprehension at his friends, the gifts they held and the food on the table which included what looked like a large golden snitch made out of icing... there had to be something on the inside of all that icing, surely...

"He's forgotten what tonight was supposed to be." Joey chuckled. "Sorry Atem, I think we broke him."

"You like breaking my link partners." Atem grouched as Harry's mind caught up with events and he remembered the birthday party.

"But I thought..."

"Just because we couldn't have it where we originally planned to have it, doesn't mean we'd forgotten." Joey smirked.

"The first gift of the evening should be here in a moment or two." Atem said casually, enjoying seeing Harry's eyes light up much the same way they had that first Christmas at Hogwarts and silently damning the Dursley parents for the horrendous handling of his friend, "But it's fragile, so you'll have to be careful."

Harry nodded in bare comprehension and moved away from the doors, still taking in the sight of the balloons and the cake and the candles and the...

The doors opened again and a weary looking Yugi stepped through, supporting an awake but sleepy looking Hermione.

"Happy Birt..." That was as far as the pair got before Harry had crossed the gap and hugged them tightly.

"Sorry it's a bit late." Yugi apologised as Harry pulled away, opening the link with his friend and grinning slightly at the fact he had never sensed Harry as happy as he was in that moment. "But I hope you like your present. It was a pain to carry..." He gestured to Hermione, who swatted him.

Yugi just grinned at her as Harry took over supporting Hermione and led her over to the buffet table to get something to eat.

"I'm glad she woke up when she did, but how?" Sirius asked Atem as they watched the trio at the table. "The Healers didn't think she'd..."

"Yugi." Atem said with no small amount of pride, "He worked out that with the Puzzle's Unity, the Key's powers and a little help from both myself and Aylth, Hermione's partner monster, he could enter Hermione's mind and help her find her way back to her body."

Sirius's eyes widened, "Seriously? Wasn't that dangerous?"

"She's a member of his Court and much more importantly she's a friend. Yugi will always risk his own safety when his friends are involved." Atem shrugged, trying not to remember the emotions that had run rampant as he'd played anchor to ensure that Yugi could safely get back to his own body from wherever Hermione had gotten lost to.

"How can you be so calm when..."

"He's not," Joey put the Pharaoh in a headlock, attracting the attention of the three at the table, "But he's a good actor."

"Joey, put Yami down." Harry called across the room, "Or I won't let you have any of my cake."

Joey immediately released the Pharaoh who rubbed his neck and rolled his eyes, more than used to Joey's antics after almost a decade. Before he could say anything to the blonde, however, Joey had picked up the present he'd gotten and darted over to Harry, eager to be second before someone could hand Harry a gift that blew his out of the water.

"Why do you let them get away with so much?" Sirius asked Atem, amused by the Pharaoh's complete lack of concern.

"They're my friends." Atem replied as if it explained everything, watching as Harry unwrapped Joey's gift slowly, once again savouring the fact he had family and friends willing to give him presents and that, shockingly, Dudley wasn't going to take them away as he had in the past. Probably, Harry assumed, because his cousin was too frightened of his friends to try.

It was quite a turn around...

A thought popped into Harry's head. "Hey Joey?"

"Yes Harry?" The blonde asked, pausing in what Harry was certain were his efforts to build the world's tallest tower of food to look at him.

"You apologised about the party earlier... I thought it wasn't going to happen." Harry gave Joey an amused look, trying to avoid giving away the fact that Yugi was in the process of stealing a sandwich off of Joey's plate, mostly because he couldn't avoid seeing whether he could play Jenga with Joey's food tower.

"Heh. We didn't think Kaiba's permission to hold it here, but someone whose name I won't mention..." Joey glanced across the room to where Atem was talking to Sirius, "Managed to get Rich Boy's permission to hold it here and managed to organise us well enough that we got everything set up without you having a clue. Hey!" Joey noticed what Yugi was up to and moved his plate away causing Yugi to give him a sheepish grin. "Get your own!"

"You sure you don't want to stick around for this?" Sirius nudged Ombre as Atem joined his friends at the table.

"It's to preserve moments like this that we must leave." Ombre replied, her tone low, not wanting to be overheard, "They're going to get fewer and further apart if this war drags on..."

"Tomorrow then?"

"Tomorrow."

* * *

While Harry was celebrating his fifteenth birthday with his friends, Maximillian Pegasus was sat in his office with his head in his hands.

His company was safe, the various press releases, the announcement of a real magical ministry in Japan, along with proof and the recent exhibition matches that both he and Kaiba had set up, had seen to that, but the last two days had been nothing but meeting after meeting after press conference after meeting. Even with the help of his children, the ones he'd adopted while he'd been married to his darling Cecelia and raised to take over his company once he was gone, the semi-retired head of Industrial Illusions was feeling the pressure.

Thinking about his children, Yako, Gekko, Depre and Richie, helped Pegasus unwind slightly and as he moved away from his desk and moved to stand over by the window, he thought once again about which one of them he was going to choose to take over from him when he finally stood down.

He'd kept them out of his less well known and more disreputable practises, the four of them had been in college or university studying business and law when he'd attempted to take over Kaiba Corp, and he'd worked hard over the years to make sure that they had the best of everything.

In exchange his four sons were incredibly loyal to him and the company, any one of them would make a fine CEO, but he had to consider their strengths and weaknesses, their talents and abilities, their personalities and preferences, and he had to keep in mind the thoughts and feelings of his other children. Whoever he put in charge of Industrial Illusions would be in charge of their brothers and that would cause bad feeling, it might even split the close band of brothers.

That was something that Pegasus didn't want and it was one of the myriad of reasons that he had yet to choose from among his heirs. When he did, he'd have his will rewritten and, when the time was right, he'd pass the reins of the company over to his heir, until that time...

"Are these them?"

Pegasus froze momentarily as he caught the reflection of someone in the night darkened window before wheeling around, hand reaching for his wand as he found himself face to face with a man in a black hooded robe and a white mask.

"Are these the Dark Gods?" The man asked again, examining the three cards in his hand. "Are these the cards said to be stronger than those held by the King of Games?"

Pegasus scowled at the question. The three cards, The Wicked Eraser, The Wicked Dreadroot and The Wicked Avatar were the creation of one of his sons and he had been trying to work out what to do with them.

Yako had been proud of the set of three, which had been completed just an hour before Shadowmorn had struck, had claimed that he'd inspired by a reoccurring dream, that he had worked on the three of them on his own. Pegasus wouldn't have been surprised if it was true. Yako and his twin brother Gekko had always been more sensitive to magic and the power behind the game of Duel Monsters than their brothers.

However those three cards were never going to be released to the public. Yako himself had told his father that they were twisted and that he wanted his father's opinion on what to do with them. That had been why they had been on Pegasus's desk in the first place.

"Of course they are." The man continued twirling a card in his other hand as Pegasus went to speak. A Battle Ox appeared out of nowhere before Pegasus could react and knocked the wizard down. The huge Beast-Warrior placed his foot on Pegasus's chest, pinning him to the floor. "After all," The man continued, "Who would have the only things stronger than the Gods than the one who created the Gods?"

"Reducto!" Pegasus blasted the Duel Monster holding him down, having no intention of letting the cards his son was so proud of into the hands of any Shadow-Touched Duellist, not even the Yugi-boys. The Battle Ox disintegrated and Pegasus shot to his feet, wand in hand. It had been a long time since he'd needed to duel the wizarding way. He had lived in the Muggle world for far too long and had had Croquet to do that for him for longer again but this man was no wizard.

Not that he needed his wand, within milliseconds of getting on his feet he was backed up by both his Toon Summoned Skull and his Toon Dark Magician Girl, and the two were attacking the man, dodging around the Warrior monsters the masked thug had summoned and going for the Shadow-Touched Duellist directly, only to bounce off of the wall of glittering mirrors that the man summoned.

Pegasus let out a pained hiss as his Toons lost attack points. While they were stunned from bouncing off of the Mirror Wall, the man's monsters attacked, destroying both of Pegasus's creatures and leaving the CEO of Industrial Illusions defenceless.

Before Pegasus could launch any sort of counter attack, the warrior monsters were on him and he let out an agonised scream as something stabbed into his back and ripped outwards.

Pegasus collapsed to the floor the moment the blade was free of his back, in too much pain to think clearly enough to summon in his defence or even think about apparating away as his blood gushed away...

"You know..." Pegasus had trouble focusing on the voice of the man and his hearing faded in and out as he struggled to stay alert and survive, well aware that if his security weren't here yet, they had probably already run into the robed man. "I thought ... would be harder... kill... Industrial Illusions... before long... I'll be King... Dark Gods... Mutous will die too..."

Before the man could say any more, someone burst into Pegasus's office and the man vanished from the room with the aid of one of his Duel Monsters.

"Father!" Yako and Gekko, Duel Monsters already chasing the attacker and his beasts through the Shadow Realm, seeking vengeance, knelt at their father's side, Gekko already calling for an ambulance as Yako tried to steam the bleeding.

"Please father. Hold on." Yako begged.

"B..." Pegasus spat out the blood that filled his mouth. "Boys..."

"Save your strength, Father, please." Gekko pleaded.

Pegasus never heard him.


	5. Returning

"Harry, if something happens to me, make sure this gets back," Kari demanded, holding the chain attached to the Orb of Light, a determined look on her face. "Nothing else is important, but the Orb _has_ to go back to Ombre." She stood up and wheeled around, blasting the approaching Death Eater backwards with a telekinetic wave.

" ** _Harry…"_**

The Death Eater's mask went flying, and the stunned man sat up to reveal a man whose face they knew rather well, "Lucius Malfoy?" Kari snarled, half surprised. "Expelliarmus!" Malfoy's wand flew into Kari's hand as the woman approached the Death Eater warily, her own wand pointed at his chest. "You're behind this?"

When he didn't answer in favour of watching the Orb swing on its chain, Kari snapped at him again. "Malfoy!"

" ** _Harry, wake up."_**

"Kari, watch out!" Harry struggled to push himself to his feet. He could see Wormtail fast approaching to intercept. He was too slow to stop him, the effort of movement amplified the pain in his leg to excruciating levels.

"Avada Kedava!"

"Expelliarmus!" Harry bellowed, but the spell escaped the traitor's wand a fraction of a second before Harry's spell hit it. The piece of wood went flying towards Harry, but it was too late. The green light of death struck Kari in the back and she…

" ** _Harry!"_**

Harry started at Yugi's mental call, and found himself in the room he'd awoken in after his Shadow Game with Draco, only this time instead of a concerned Yami in the room, both Mutou twins were hovering nearby.

"Wha…?" Harry asked his link partners, taking in the fact that Atem was leaning against his doorframe while Yugi was the one who had shaken him from his sleep.

"We saw." Yugi murmured sympathetically, causing Harry to blink at him, confused for a moment until he remembered that nightmares on the part of one tended to disturb the sleep of the other two and occasionally, depending on how bad they were, even intruded on the dreams of the others in the link.

"Sorry." Harry turned away from the other two, not wanting to show weakness in front of them when they'd gone through so much this summer.

"For what?" Atem snorted, not moving from the doorway. Harry winced slightly at his tone, which was somewhere between barely awake, concerned and irritable.

"For disturbing you."

"I have no right to complain," Yugi replied, concerned less for the interrupted sleep and more for his friend. "Not after all the nights I've woken you and Atem up."

Harry let out a soft scoff at that. Yugi tended to have horrendous nightmares, and while he'd gotten rather good at blocking off the images from his link partners, Yugi had never been very good at suppressing his emotions, meaning that there had been many occasions when the raw sensations surging over the link had pulled Harry and Atem out of a deep sleep.

This was the first time they'd gathered in one of their Soul Rooms though.

"Is this the first?" Atem asked, finally coming in and leaning against one of the bookcases when Harry sighed and sat up, gesturing for the pharaoh to come and settle in his room.

Harry hesitated to answer, knowing that while he'd prefer to keep it a secret from the others there wasn't much point in trying. There hadn't been since the link had been formed. They knew when he was hurt, or scared or lying, just as he knew the same about them.

"No." Harry admitted bitterly, glad that they'd kept the link between the three of them blocked while they'd been planning the party. It was bad enough that he'd failed to save Kari the first time, having to relive the events every time he slept or saw Ombre was almost more than he could take and he just knew it would worry his friends further.

"It wasn't your fault, you know," Yugi murmured softly, earning himself a sharp look from the black haired teen, "Kari..."

"It _is_ my fault!" Harry interrupted, shooting out of bed and glowering at Yugi, who didn't back down an inch. "We knew something was going to happen and I let myself get hurt! If I hadn't been hurt I might have been able to save Kari! I should have…"

"Harry." Atem's tone broke through Harry's fit of rage and self-disgust. The combination of anger and sympathetic frustration caused the teenager to freeze and turn to the pharaoh. It wasn't that he was frightened of Atem. Unlike some of the others he knew the dark well enough to know that it didn't matter how mad Atem was, he would never deliberately harm his friends. It was that the pharaoh had never taken that tone with him before. Harry settled down slightly, sitting back down on his bed and watching the pharaoh warily. Atem's shoulders sank, the moment of anger passing quickly as grief settled.

"You shouldn't blame yourself for what happened to Kari," Atem told him with a mournful sigh, "Not when the fault rests firmly on the shoulders of Crouch, Wormtail and Voldemort."

"But I…!"

"You and Yugi are too much alike," Atem grimaced, causing Harry to realise that, for once, he meant it as an insult. "When something happens to your friends you blame yourself, even if there's nothing you could have done. You have to accept that you can't save everyone."

"You two do!" Harry's accused the Mutous, making them both flinch. "You both save everyone every time!"

"It wasn't always that way," Atem's pained tone and the sudden burst of memories and feelings that crossed the link caused Harry's expression to change from indignation to shock.

"Was that…?" Harry gasped. The images of the devastation that had occurred in Egypt during Atem's reign were clear and vivid in his mind as if he were there himself. Not all of them were from Zorc's attack.

"Yes," Yugi's tone was full of grief, "It was…"

The three of them sat in silence for a while, none of them really looking at each other, the emotions each of them were feeling mingling and amplifying as they bounced along the link.

"Sorry." Harry mumbled.

"No." Yugi shook his head, understanding even as he sounded despondent, "You're not the only one who thinks that way." He let out a heavy sigh but before he could continue, his eyes widened and he vanished from the Soul Room.

"What do you think that was about?" Harry asked Atem, who was just getting to his feet when shock surged over the link, washing away any other emotion and leaving the pair reeling.

" _Yami,"_ Yugi's voice whispered through their minds, _"You need to get out here right now."_

' _What's wrong?'_

" _Pegasus has been murdered."_

' _WHAT?'_ Atem exited the Soul Room to find a panicked-looking Mokuba watching as Yugi scrambled out of bed and tried to find his clothes bag.

"Atem?" Mokuba asked as Atem joined his hikari in his efforts to find his clothes, "Yugi told you?"

"Details. Now." The pharaoh demanded as he tossed Yugi's bag across the room and found his own.

"Someone broke into _Industrial Illusions_ and murdered Pegasus around seven pm our time last night." Mokuba informed him. Atem glanced at the clock, which read 6:46 am, before pulling on his clothes, finishing seconds behind Yugi who was adjusting his leather choker and the Puzzle's chain as Harry entered the room. "According to the security cameras, Pegasus and his attacker fought using Duel Monsters but Pegasus was overwhelmed and…" Mokuba trailed off for a moment then. "We're increasing security around the mansion and Yako and Gekko Tenma need to speak with Yugi. Urgently."

"Who?" Harry asked Mokuba, who blinked at him for a moment before realising that none of those gathered had ever heard about the children Pegasus adopted many years ago, long before Yugi had completed the Puzzle.

"Pegasus's sons." Mokuba kind of enjoyed the shock that his little revelation brought.

Yugi was the first to recover, "Where are they and why do they want to speak to me?"

"Downstairs in the dining hall. The cook is preparing food. It is lunch time their time after all. As for why they're here…well they'd be better off telling you that.

"All right," Yugi nodded, "Show us the way."

"All right, but Yugi?" said Mokuba. "Watch your back."

"What do you mean?" Atem demanded as Yugi gave Mokuba a confused and worried look, suddenly realising that the boy was shaking. "Do you think it was the Tenmas who killed…?"

"N…no. They brought the tape from Pegasus's office…" Mokuba stammered, shaking his head as he spoke. "It looked like a Death Eater."

"A Death Eater? A Shadow-Duellist Death Eater?" Yugi was gob-smacked.

"That's not the worst of it, but I'll let the Tenmas explain," Mokuba ushered the three of them out of the room and downstairs, seeing no point in telling Atem and Harry not to follow. Considering what the Tenmas were about to say, it would affect all of them anyway, and Yugi would share what had happened in the meeting.

The four of them reached the dining hall quickly, and as Harry entered he was surprised to see none of the decorations from last night's party were still visible except one little lonely balloon.

"Tenma Gekko, Tenma Yako," Mokuba nodded to the two strange men, who paused their conversation with Seto and turned towards the door. "May I introduce the Mutou twins, Yugi and Yami," he pointed to each of them in turn, "And their good friend, Harry Potter."

"Mutou-shacho." The pair bowed to Yugi, stunning the trio, catching the three off their guard.

"I...I'm sorry?" Yugi asked, eyes wide, "But what did you just call me?"

"I apologise, Mutou-shacho," Yako spoke as Gekko nodded to Atem and Harry, "There is a lot to discuss and it is very early."

"I... I'm sorry but I think you have the wrong honorific," Yugi said, voice sharp and confusion obvious. "I'm not the president of anything."

"You mean you haven't told him?" Gekko frowned at Mokuba.

"I thought it was better if you informed him," Mokuba shook his head. "He'd probably think I was joking."

"Informed Yugi of what?" Atem growled impatiently at the businessmen.

Yako sighed, "When our father was killed, Mutou-San, his will came into effect."

"And what has that to do with my brother?"

"Upon the death of our father," Gekko replied, "Ownership of _Industrial Illusions_ passed to your brother until such time as he can decide between the heirs to the company. Consider it, if you will, a regency which is to be held until you," Gekko looked at Yugi, "Can decide which of the heirs is the most suited to continue the game of Duel Monsters."

"But I don't know how to run a company!" Yugi yelped.

Seto quietly scoffed as he mentally acknowledged the fact Yugi was severely under prepared for such a position to be dropped on him. Still, he didn't plan on letting Yugi mess up since this development suddenly made the heir to the Shadowed Throne his most important business partner. After all, everything _Kaiba Corp._ did with the game of Duel Monsters went through the CEO of _Industrial Illusions_ first.

"Our father was semi-retired," Gekko explained, "He's basically asking you to be Industrial Illusions's face and voice during this transitory period and finalise any big decisions while his sons help to keep the company running smoothly until you can choose who should lead. He wanted to entrust the leadership of the company to someone who truly loved the game, knew its true history, would be able to choose who would really be best to carry on its legacy without bias and would actually give it up when the decision was made."

"You'll be compensated for your time and effort," Yako added, his tone edged with acidity, "He's leaving you a large lump sum of money and his vacation home, along with the island it's situated on."

Yugi nodded, but Atem could tell that he was already too overwhelmed to really take in that last piece of information.

"I…" Yugi trailed off and his link partners could feel him trying to pull his thoughts into a coherent state and take in everything he'd heard.

"Sorry. Can I borrow Harry?" Sirius asked, poking his head in the door and looking around.

"Sure. I'm not useful right now anyway." Harry stepped out before his link partners could say a word against it and closed off his end, to allow both parties their privacy.

"What do I need to do now?" Yugi asked once the door had shut behind Harry.

"Before you do anything, there's something else you need to be told," Gekko growled, "The Shadow-Touched who broke into Industrial Illusions took the beta versions of some rather potent new cards, the Dark Gods, and swore to kill both of you." He looked between the Mutou twins.

Yugi had quickly filled his shocked quota for so early in the morning and this news was, understandably after the decade he'd had, less shocking than the fact that he'd suddenly acquired Industrial Illusions. Atem, however, growled viciously and went on high alert pretty much instantly.

"Dark Gods?" He demanded, his hand going automatically to his deck holster where the original God cards rested.

"They were my creation," Yako admitted, "But they were never meant for release. I made them because they wanted to be made, not because we planned on mass releasing them. There are three of them, each in answer to one of the Egyptian Gods; to Obelisk, the Wicked Dreadroot, to Slifer, the Wicked Eraser, and to Ra, the Wicked Avatar. Just like the originals, these three are Divine monsters who cannot be affected by trap and monster effects, well, except for those of the Gods and even then the Avatar is the Ra of the set in every way." Atem grimaced at that news. "And they all have their own powers."

"So they're like the Legendary Demons," Yugi questioned, "Except as dark aligned Gods?"

"And they have a lot more power," Yako sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose between a thumb and forefinger in exasperation, "I was actually considering them as a gift to you, Mutou-san." Atem blinked speechlessly. "After all, the Egyptian God Monsters were never officially yours, Mutou-shacho just lets you use them. However, when I finished them I realised they couldn't be released. They felt…wrong."

Atem nodded his understanding while Yugi frowned slightly.

"If the attacker wasn't Shadow-Touched, I wouldn't be as worried, but…" Yako trailed off.

"No, I understand." Atem grimaced, remembering all too well how hard it had been to fight against the God monsters when they had been in Marik's hands, and that had been when the powers of the Shadows were usable only to someone with access to an artefact able to control them.

There was silence for a moment, then Yugi spoke up, "There's nothing we can do about him until we have more leads. We'll just have to watch our backs." He let out a soft sigh, "Now, what's the next step while the investigation takes place?"

"We hold a press conference to announce the new CEO and what information we have," Yako grumbled. He had seen the newspapers that morning. Someone had already leaked news of Pegasus's death and it was splashed around everywhere.

"And you and Atem still need to talk to the press regarding what happened during Shadowmorn. It can't be put off much longer. The only reason it didn't happen yesterday was because you weren't allowed out of bed." Seto glowered at Yugi, who responded with a sheepish look.

"Technically I'm still not supposed to be out of bed."

"I hate to say it," Mokuba looked Yugi over thoughtfully, "But it's a shame you don't look more beat up or we could have used it to our advantage."

"You are not beating Yugi up as some publicity stunt!" Atem snapped irritably at the younger Kaiba.

"I know! I know!" Mokuba backed up defensively. "But we have to think of something!"

"Well, I guess the first port of call is for you two to tell me everything I need to know before I face the press," Yugi told the Tenmas, "And then I guess it's time for Yami and I to face the music."

* * *

Rebecca wanted to pace, or write or read or something to get her mind of the possible situations that she was flying into in Japan but she hadn't thought to pack a book in her carryon luggage and there wasn't exactly anywhere out of the way she could go to pace up and down in an airplane.

Instead she'd settled for looking through her deck, which she'd nearly been banned from coming onboard with, and trying to work out if she needed to change her strategies. She had been going to compete in the Kaiba Land Asia version of Battle City, but changed her mind before Shadowmorn happened. Now she wasn't so sure; with everything that had happened there were probably a lot of withdrawals and they needed the numbers to be up. She'd checked the stock exchange before she'd flown. Kaiba Corp. needed the good publicity and it needed it bad. That their CEO had been directly involved in Shadowmorn was both a good and a bad thing.

Good because he'd been on the, 'pharaoh's side', and most people she'd overheard seemed to be under the impression that it was the still-hiding Yugi, who filled that role. Bad because he had been involved at all and the knowledge that he had been involved in the events that killed tens of thousands and left many more in comas was, apparently, a bad thing, even if he had been on the right side.

She gave up on her deck when she realised she was getting evil looks from several passengers, put it back in its box and stowed that safely away, only to realise she _did_ have some paper on her. The diary that updated every time Luna spoke a new prophecy. If she didn't use her auto-update quill and wrote from the back of the book, she could use it as a regular note pad and she wouldn't draw any more suspicion then she already had.

She knew what people were like. They were probably already wondering if she was for or against the pharaoh and what she'd been doing during Shadowmorn. People were already asking questions like, "Why hadn't this been prevented sooner?" and, "Why was it allowed to happen?" as well as, "Why weren't people warned?" "Who let Bakura Malfoy walk the streets?" and, "Why was the pharaoh allowed to walk around unprotected if he was the only one who could prevent Shadowmorn?"

There were also an awful lot of people she'd overheard saying that either, "Bakura Malfoy should have been locked up a long time ago and left there," or, "Yugi Mutou should have never been allowed to walk around the streets for his own safety, along with all of ours."

The worst part was part of her actually agreed with some of them, and she knew the truth of what happened. She knew Shadowmorn had been the culmination of everything that Yugi and Yami had fought so hard for during the last decade, that Yami earning his name had been their reward for every time they'd saved the planet, that Zorc had twisted it to suit his own purposes, and still she agreed that Bakura should have been locked up and the key thrown away, that Yugi should have been kept in a gilded cage so no one could trigger Shadowmorn by killing him, that her friends should have been kept away from the rest of the human race to prevent hundreds of thousands of lives being lost.

She hated herself for it, especially considering that she was such good friends with the group. It wasn't their fault that an insane mage and a demon had set them up, nor was it their fault that the grand prize at the end of all the insanity had been booby-trapped, but still she couldn't help but agree with some of the comments. It was part of the reason she wanted to write. She wanted to get all of these thoughts and feelings out of her head so she could get on with helping her friends settle everything into the way they would now have to be when she got there. They couldn't hide anymore. Everyone knew about Yugi and his 'court,' as the press were beginning to call the group recovering at the Kaiba mansion.

Not to mention the International Statute of Secrecy, which had been blown so far out of the water it had flown well out of orbit and possibly past Saturn by now. The first thing she needed to do when she got to the mansion was warn the group about the rumours, though she might leave one or two of the less innocent ones out. The innuendos about so many hot guys belonging to such a small assemblage were flying thick and fast.

The last thing Yugi and the rest needed was to be caught unawares by something she could have warned them about. Her train of thought was derailed as she realised why it was so easy for the public to assume that Yugi was the one in charge.

It was always, 'Yugi and Yami,' 'Yugi and the others,' or, 'Yugi, Yami and friends'. When the Mutou twins were interviewed, it was always Yugi they spoke to first, even when people talked about the King of Games they didn't always mean Yami, who had won the title from Yugi years ago, but the original King of Games, though to those in the know that distinction was hard to make.

Yugi was engrained in the public eye, even now, nearly four years after Atem had taken his title.

It was almost to be expected that when someone announced that one of the Mutou twins was, 'the pharaoh,' who had been guarding the Shadows and preventing this from happening, and that they had nearly died, it would be Yugi they would think was the one in question. He took far longer to recover, and had always been more in the public eye, with his insane talent for Duel Monsters, and the rumours of magic that followed him wherever he went.

There were even questions about whether Yami was his, 'champion,' or bodyguard and if Yugi had willingly given up his grandfather's deck and his title in order to get some of the public eye off of himself since he'd been at such risk. It was nonsense of course, but then people spouted nonsense when they didn't know what was really going on. Rebecca started jotting down notes about what she'd seen and heard, adding in little things that her Grandpa had heard or talked about as the pair of them very quietly discussed how best to bring them up in front of the Mutou twins, only for the people in the seats around them to realise what they were discussing and start asking questions and suggesting comments to be passed on.

As the noise spread slowly down the plane and Rebecca realised that she was only an hour into a twelve hour flight, she wished she had a bigger notebook and a much smaller mouth.

* * *

"You wanted a word?" Harry asked as he and his godfather settled by the fountain in the backyard of the Kaiba mansion, tipping a nod to a worried-looking Joey and a stunned, vaguely ticked looking Ombre as he passed.

Sirius let out a heavy sigh and they sat in silence for a moment, before the wizard finally decided on what he was going to say and how he was going to say it, "I've really enjoyed this summer…" Sirius started.

"You're going back to England, aren't you?" Harry asked, having wondered for a while if Sirius would want to return to his home country when he reached his final destination, considering that Sirius had been talking about the things he wanted to show him when they got back for a while. He'd been hoping he was wrong when Sirius started talking about moving to Japan full-time, but obviously not.

"We need to find out what the prophecy is, and I can do a lot more among wizards than I can here," Sirius tried to explain, "You're safer here, among friends, than you are back home at the moment. Between the ICoW, the Ministry _and_ Dumbledore there's too many people hunting you right now."

Harry watched his godfather for a moment, wondering if it would have been so easy for Sirius to let him go if he'd made more of an effort to get along with him. Sirius shifted uneasily under his gaze. He didn't know what he'd expected when he'd first been pardoned, but he knew that Harry wasn't anything like he imagined him to be. He'd always envisioned Harry being a carbon copy of his father and in looks they were very, very similar, but in every other way except in loyalty to his friends there was no similarity. Sirius just didn't know how to handle the teen in front of him.

"What if I don't want to know what the prophecy says?" Harry asked. "What if I'm happy where I am and knowing what I know?"

It was a lie, though. Harry knew from the experiences of his friends how much fate could rule someone's life. Ignorance wasn't an excuse. If he didn't find out what the prophecy was, eventually it would hunt him down anyway.

"You'll be better off here, with your friends, than you would be going back with me, kiddo," Sirius sighed, ruffling Harry's hair. "Besides if you come with me you're going to mope around the entire time and want to be back here."

"Are you taking Dudley?" Harry asked, trying not to care and ignore the emotions battering against the barricade he'd put up in his mind against the thoughts and feelings of the others.

"Can you honestly see Dudley fitting in here? Your friends don't like him and he's freaked out by them. Besides, both Dudley and I are here on tourist visas and neither of us has anywhere to stay on a long term basis.

"But…"

"I have space in the flat above the shop, but I can't stay there forever and Dudley keeps getting forgotten. Kaiba only took him in because there was literally no room at the time. We need to head back, both so we can open up some room and so I can find out what that prophecy is and help my friend. I can't leave poor Remus alone with the Order after all."

Harry smiled slightly at that. He wouldn't have wanted to be alone with Dumbledore either. Harry wasn't foolish. If Dumbledore could mess with Yugi and Atem's minds so thoroughly that neither of them had noticed until someone else had pointed it out, then he held no false illusions about his own ability to stand strong against him.

"I wanted to give you something before I left, though." Sirius brought out a present that was wrapped carefully in fabric. Harry opened it, only to find a hand mirror.

"Sirius, wha…?" Harry trailed off as Sirius held up a second mirror, and his face appeared on the surface of the one Harry was holding. The teen's face lit up as he realised the implications.

Sirius had always been bad with mobile 'phones and Harry hadn't seen a telephone in a magical household so he'd been afraid he'd lose contact with his godfather. Part of Harry had been afraid that that was the way Sirius wanted it. Evidently he was wrong, and Harry had almost never been happier to be so.

"They're two-way looking glasses. Much better than Muggle mobiles. This way you get video calls too," Sirius teased, pleased by Harry's delighted reaction. "This set is a pair. If you ever need to get in contact with me, or I with you, we can do it using these. Just call my name and if I don't answer the mirror right away it'll inform me the moment I get back and I'll call you then, okay?"

Harry nodded quickly, "And I'll do the same for you. After all, we will be in different time zones."

"Exactly," Sirius grinned at him. "Now, I'm leaving in a couple of hours so shall we have one last meal before I go?"

* * *

Yugi stood in front of the mirror and adjusted his clothes, nervously trying to settle himself down. Atem had gone to get their food, since they hadn't had time to eat before they needed to be ready for the press conference, though it hadn't been easy to convince the pharaoh to leave after what had been said in the meeting. They were both hungry, and Yami's paranoia had induced him to go and watch their meal being prepared.

For the first time in a while, Yami's overprotective nature wasn't aggravating Yugi. It was different when he was able to defend himself, but right now he was almost helpless. He'd had some combat training, most of his battle skills laid in the magic he was so good at controlling and right now even the Puzzle's magic was almost completely unresponsive to him. As such, with an obviously magical enemy after them, Yugi was more than happy to hold back any frustrations he might have had. Unfortunately, Atem's over-protectiveness wouldn't save him from what was to come. This press conference was important for all sorts of reasons and not just because of what they were announcing. He could deal with the Duellist crowd, they were the easy ones. It was the press that would be there who didn't know him that he worried about.

The sound of the door opening attracted Yugi's attention and he turned towards it rapidly, reaching for his deck on instinct only to calm down when he saw that it was Ombre entering.

"What's wrong?" Yugi asked with concern in his tone. Ombre didn't look like she had slept last night. The false princess just stared at him with a look on her face that even he couldn't read. He moved towards her, worried that something was very wrong. "Ombre?"

"Why?" Ombre's tone, one of hatred, grief and pain, stunned Yugi.

"Ombre?" He asked again as he returned her gaze, uncomprehending.

"Why, Yugi?" Ombre asked, "Were we not good enough for you?"

"W…what? I don't…" Yugi trailed off as Ombre's features morphed, pure hatred filling the previous blankness.

"You could have saved her! You could have…!" In a move that was too fast for Yugi to track, Ombre darted across the room and seized the heir by the throat, slamming him against the wall before he could blink, and pinning him there. Her magic flared wildly. "But you didn't! You held back the one power that we needed the most!"

"I…I don't understand!" Yugi stammered, frightened not of Ombre but of what her magic could do with her in such a state. His lack of comprehension angered her further and she shook him. He let out an involuntary yelp.

"You have the power to bring back the dead!" She hissed as she lifted Yugi off of his feet, her rage fuelling her strength. "You could have used it to bring Kari back! You didn't! You let her go!"

Yugi's eyes widened as he realised what she was accusing him of, "I couldn't…! I can't…!"

"You used it to save your precious 'Yami'!" Ombre interrupted him with a snarl. Her grip tightened, "Was it that you didn't think Kari was worth your time and magic? That you didn't care enough about her to drain yourself?"

"No!" Yugi protested, beginning to feel light-headed. He tried to wrestle Ombre's hands away from his throat. "No! That wasn't it at all! If I could bring people back from the dead I would have saved Kari! But I can't! I don't know how I saved Ya…!"

"You lie!" Ombre didn't let him finish. "You knew exactly how to bring Atem back! I've seen the memory! You didn't hesitate for a moment!"

"Yami's my other half! I share his soul!"

"You're laying the blame on me?" Ombre seethed at him, her magic pulsing and her twin-handed grip on Yugi's throat intensifying, almost completely cutting off Yugi's airways. "You're the one at fault! You're the one with the power!"

"I don't…" Yugi wheezed, terrified now not of Ombre's magic but of the woman herself. He struggled to find the air to plead with his friend, to bring her back to her senses as he tried to free himself from her vice like grip. "Ombre…" He could feel himself slipping into darkness. Black nibbled at the edges of his vision, her grasp cutting off more than just his air. She was killing him. "Please..."

She considered him a moment longer as if waiting for something, then his pleading seemed to sink in at last and she released him. Yugi crumpled into a quivering pile at the base of the wall. He coughed and gasped, trying to rake in the air she'd denied him.

"You let her die, Yugi," Ombre's tone as she backed away slowly, as if realising what she'd almost done, caused the still gasping hikari to look at her. "It's not my fault. It's yours. You could have brought her back! You could have saved her! You always save everyone! What makes my light so different? What made her undeserving of 'Prince Yugi's' rescue?" She spat out the name like a particularly foul curse word.

"If I could have saved her, I would have done," Yugi said, rising uneasily to his feet and taking a step forward. He forced the words out painfully as both his link partners promised that they were on their way. "If I could have taken the spell instead I would have done that too, but I wasn't in the graveyard when Wormtail killed her and I don't have the power to bring back the dead. I'm sor…"

Yugi's attempt to apologise caused Ombre's rage to spike and her magic slipped its leash, striking him hard. The hikari couldn't move fast enough, and although he avoided hitting the wall again, he crashed into the second bed in the room, tumbled over it and landed heavily on the other side, slamming his head into the bedside table as he fell. He let out a pained cry as he tried to push himself up, only for pain to lance up his right side. His right arm buckled underneath his weight and he slumped down onto the mat. It was a concerned Ombre who knelt down next to him as Yugi fought against the darkness trying to claim him, frightened and in excruciating pain.

Ombre winced as Yugi whimpered, passing out when she tried to roll him onto his back. "You let your guard down far too easily. One day it's going to get you killed," She murmured, worried, as she tried to pull Yugi up and onto the bed. "Not that…" The door slammed open and Atem burst into the room, absolutely furious. Instead of depositing Yugi on the bed, Ombre got a better grip on the unconscious hikari and turned to glare at the more imposing figure, one of the real targets of her actions.

"Let. Him. Go." The pharaoh growled, ready to blast Ombre into next week for harming _his_ light.

"You're a fool, Pharaoh." Ombre retorted, not stupid enough to let go of the one thing preventing Atem from unleashing his full wrath against her. She was fully aware that in a fight between the pair of them, Atem would win hands-down. She edged around the room, biting back any guilt or frustration brewing in her brain.

"Let him go. _Now._ " Atem's tone, low, angry and full of the promise of agony the moment she released her captive just pissed Ombre off further.

"You need to learn. Our secret is out. We're no longer safe, even in our homes…"

"So you hurt Yugi to teach **_me_** a lesson?" Atem cut her off.

"No. To teach _everyone_ a lesson, including him," Ombre shook her head but didn't take her eyes off of the pharaoh. She hadn't meant things to go this far, she'd lost control of herself and if she survived this encounter it was something she would have to learn from herself.

"Lesson learnt. I won't leave him alone again. Now let him go." Atem demanded, worried for his light and silently admonishing himself for not even considering that Ombre might attack someone within their circle. It should have been clear to him. She had lost her mind. He inched towards the door, anticipating that Ombre might try and take Yugi with her.

"That's not the lesson, Yami." Ombre glowered at him. She had no intention of doing anything except leave Yugi with the healers, but she had to make her point to the pharaoh first.

"Then what is?" Atem demanded, only holding back on Shadow Gaming Ombre because she had Yugi, and without magic, Yugi wouldn't have lasted very long in the Shadows, even if he wasn't injured.

"The lesson is that the Clan has to be on alert from now on. In the time it took you to respond to a threat to a key member, I had three opportunities to kill him. You can't be that slow. I'm family and I let him live. Someone outside our family with a grudge wouldn't be so merciful. You can't be that slow, nor can you rely on outside assistance so completely."

"What do you…?"

"Where are the Shiragiku, Atem?" Ombre asked, driving her point home. "They're supposed to be guarding us, but they're on changeover. There's no one else around either. You have to start thinking about your key players and the fact that there are people out there who want them dead. The prophecy might say that, 'not all will live to see the view,' but I'd like you all to at least live a little longer." With that, Ombre shoved Yugi towards Atem, who darted forward to catch his counterpart before he hit the floor, and then she vanished with a pop.

On cue, the healers swarmed to Atem's side, took Yugi from him and set him down on the bed. Harry, who had arrived split-seconds before, just blinked at the spot Ombre had been in. "Since when could Ombre apperate?" he asked. Healer Akata had already cast the proper diagnosis spell and sent Serenity for potions.

"I don't know." Atem grimaced, wondering if this was an ability she'd learnt from the memories in the Orb, before looking at Harry properly as something finally clicked in his mind, but before he could say or do anything, both boys were kicked out of the room as Dr Hoshigawa and Healer Akata started work.

* * *

Hermione sighed as she stretched and put the book back on the shelf, slowly getting to her feet. This library wasn't as interesting as the one she'd gotten lost in when she'd had trouble finding her way back from the Memory World, but it was full of books that Yugi would probably find useful, considering his new job.

She slumped into a chair as a maid brought her breakfast and a cup of tea and put them on one of the tables in the middle of the room, before bowing and leaving. She was still tired, but from what she'd been told by the healers who had been shocked when Yugi managed to wake her up, she was lucky to be alive to feel anything at all.

She wasn't that surprised to hear that, not when there was a Kuriboh in her Soul Room that carried a fraction of her soul with it. She'd only survived her battle with Akhenaden because she'd used the Relay Soul card Yugi gave her to summon the Kuriboh in question, using the game against itself to save her life.

She needed to tell the others about the Kuriboh soul fragment, but she had a funny feeling Yugi had worked out something was wrong when he'd entered her Soul Room to try and help her get back to the real world. He'd certainly seemed confused when he'd had to help her traverse the maze-like library that constituted the impossibly intimate chamber. Remembering that Yami's room had gotten more complicated the more questions they'd had, she wondered if her library was acting much in the same way.

She couldn't help feeling guilty about needing Yugi's help to return to the world of the living. Part of her hadn't wanted to leave the incredible repository of all her knowledge and memories, even though she knew people were waiting for her. All she recalled was going through the door from Memory World and waking up at the centre of her library.

The worst part was that while she roughly recognised it from when Shadi had invaded her Room to test her, it had changed so much that it had taken Yugi pointing out where she was to get her to actually register the fact properly and think about leaving. Still, she could make it up to her friends now by being there and supporting them as they endured the changes. Something Joey said to her years ago finally made sense. He'd told her that until he'd had his first Shadow Game, he hadn't really understood magic very well, but afterwards he'd been able to sense the Shadows shifting.

She had a similar feeling, in fact she could sense the magic around them, however that she could not use it proficiently was disconcerting. She had a theory. She was almost certain that the Shadows never truly let go of someone they had had in their clutches, which was why Yugi and his friends had more power than a Shadow-Touched who had yet to play a Shadow Game. The magic had touched those lives before Shadowmorn, either through friends, or through the game of Duel Monsters, or even _via_ their parents. However the Shadow-Touched outside the Clan hadn't had to escape the sharp, vicious claws of the Shadow Realm, nor had they brought a little of the Shadows back with them while doing so. A loud pop made her jump. She grabbed her wand and shot to her feet, dropping her toast on the table as she spun to face the noise.

"Ombre?" Hermione blinked, confused as to why she had apperated into the room when there was a perfectly good door. Ombre simply glimpsed her way, grabbed the bag that was stashed under the table and vanished again, causing the bushy-haired brunette no end of befuddlement. She didn't have to wonder long as Akane, tail bottle-brushed, fangs bared and fur on end, burst into the room.

"Where is she?" The Nekomata demanded with a feline hiss, further baffling Hogwarts' prize boffin for a moment. "Where's Ironhide?"

Hermione's eyes were fixed on the huge cat. She hoped this wasn't to do with the magic she'd sensed upstairs but figured for Atem throwing a fit as he had been most of the morning, ever since they'd been informed that Pegasus was dead. When she spoke it was as neutrally as she could possibly manage, "She apperated in, grabbed her bag and apperated away again. Why?"

"Damn it! She's fast." Akane complained, the words sounding strange coming from the voice-box of a cat, even a magical one. "Granger-san if you would be so kind as to go to your room, immediately…"

It was phrased as a request but Hermione knew an order when she heard one. She quickly gathered her stuff and followed the nekomata out of the room, still puzzling out why the Shiragiku was in such a state, and was heading upstairs to her room when she asked again, "What's going on?"

"Ironhide attacked Mutou Yugi-san," Akane growled. Hermione stopped dead. "The healers are in with him now, but it sounds serious."

Hermione paled. She could bet it was. Magic was always dangerous, but it was less so when you had magic of your own to defend yourself. The only way to block magic if you didn't have any of your own was simply to dodge, which was often not an easy feat. If Yugi had been hit by the sort of power she had sensed earlier, then considering the state his soul and his magic were in, it could have been a potentially devastating blow.

"I'm fine." Hermione's head whipped towards the open door to the room that the Mutou, 'twins,' shared. Yugi's voice, a wavering, stumbling version of its normally bright tone escaped through a crack, "We have to do this and we have to do this…" Yugi started coughing as the words caught in his wind-pipe.

"Yugi." Hermione recognised Atem's tone, it was the patient yet frustrated one the pharaoh took when Yugi was beyond hurt and well into the realms of should-be-unconscious but refused to stop to look after himself. "You can't hold this press conference now. You can barely talk, yet alone stand…"

"The healers have done all they can, and they've reduced the…" The modern-born Mutou paused to cough, "…swelling from the bruises." For emphasis, his hand covered the front of his bruised neck, making quite clear his discomfort but otherwise hiding it from view. "Besides, we should have done this yesterday, before Pegasus was…" Yugi let out a barely audible sigh as Serenity handed him a potion, which he downed quickly, grimacing at the taste but appreciative it took the edge off the pain. "I like it less than you do, Yami, but it needs to be done."

Atem said something rude. Hermione didn't catch it since it was in a language she didn't recognise, but Yugi gave Atem a sharp look. "There's no need for that language. She was right."

"She didn't need to beat you senseless to prove it!" Atem shot back, still understandably furious with Ombre. Yugi didn't say anything, but Hermione could bet he was thinking the exact same as her. Atem always learnt faster when Yugi was the one who paid for his mistakes.

"Granger-san?" Akane nudged her.

"Coming." Hermione nodded, wondering where Ombre had gone and suddenly understanding why the princess had fled as swiftly as she had. Hermione had seen Atem punish people for much smaller infractions. Injuring Yugi was the one thing simultaneously guaranteed to teach Atem a lesson and earn the teacher a one-way ticket to the Shadow Realm, first class. She just wondered what lesson Ombre had been trying to teach that required such a brutal lesson.

* * *

Joey's exhibition match against Seto had been planned to take place in the, 'Meadow,' area of Kaiba Land Asia, but with everything going on, he fully expected it to be cancelled and the press conference pushed ahead. Instead, Joey found himself duelling in the outer grounds of one of the park's other, grander areas. Namely the Sanctuary in the Sky. Meanwhile, a white limousine had been hired to rush Yugi, Atem and Pegasus's children (and hadn't that been a surprise?) straight to the park. Serenity was with them, assigned to attend to the reluctant new chief executive's medical needs while he was away from the mansion. The arrangement, as it was told to him, was to keep the worst of the crowds away from the entrance so they wouldn't interfere with setting up the conference.

He wouldn't have minded, but he couldn't keep his mind on the match. Rich-Boy looked like he was suffering no such inhibitions and was easily countering his frankly ridiculously obvious moves before he could finish making them.

Part of it was the cards. Seto had upgraded his deck massively before he'd come out to duel in public, whereas Joey only had access to the cards in his spares to make any changes he needed, and he hated to admit it, but his deck was laughably out of date. What he honestly needed was to get his hands on a couple of hundred boosters, but that would involve money, and that was something he was lacking. Somehow he didn't think his best friend becoming CEO of the company that made the game would suddenly earn him the right to hundreds of free cards.

The major part, however, was his lack of focus, which was a shame because if he could have done, Kaiba had left him plenty of openings to exploit, if only he had been paying less attention to the press, most of whom had departed midway through, calling something about, 'the Mutou twins arriving,' and more attention to the fact that Kaiba's seemingly unstoppable syncro dragon had one gaping weakness he could have taken advantage of. Still, he made a good show of it all, despite the weight on his and everyone else's minds, and when Seto rushed off to take his place at the conference, which was due to start any minute, Joey was left dealing with the Duellists who wanted answers, or to thank him for saving them, or to warn him that they were going to seek him out during the tournament.

It was quite nice to have fans for a change, though he was horribly aware that a lot of them wouldn't be giving him a second glance if he hadn't been mentioned among those who had stopped Shadowmorn and named outright as the guy who had, 'saved the lives of both Yugi and Yami Mutou'. By the time he managed to escape the crowds, he was thoroughly sick of requests for him to show those who hadn't been able to summon during Shadowmorn how to do so, or requests for the same info over and over again, especially when it was information he couldn't rightly give them. Even with the huge crowds on all sides, he wasn't oblivious to the specific pair of Duellists watching him. One was a woman that matched the description Harry had given him about Mel, the woman who had wanted Harry to go against Atem, the other was a man who seemed to dislike him intensely, if the glower he was getting was anything to go by.

He supposed it made sense. It was well known that anyone who wanted to go after the Mutou twins had to get past him first, and if people hadn't known before they did now after what had been released in the press.

He made his way across to them, hoping to dispense a few choice words of warning against giving his buds any more trouble than they already had, only for them vanish.

"Testing!"

Joey jumped a mile as the screens around the area switched from the maps and text directions they were displaying previously, to a live feed of the conference. He was instantly swarmed by tourists and duellists alike.

"1, 2, 3." The microphone test continued as the last of the reporters sat down, and Joey joined a throng of people at one of the bigger screens, worried about how this would go. The sudden quiet that descended was shattered as Yugi, harshly beaten and leaning heavily on Atem for support, entered the room, followed by Kaiba, the Speaker for Magical Japan, the Muggle Prime Minister and the Tenma brothers.

* * *

"Last chance," Sirius said as Ombre watched the big screen at the airport showing the event, "You could always go back and apologise."

Ombre tore her eyes away from the scene of Yugi and Atem, who were handling themselves well enough in the wake of the several million questions being fired their way, and shook her head. "I burnt that bridge for a reason, Sirius. I won't be coming back, and while I know Yugi will forgive me and Atem might understand, the Clan won't trust me if I'm falling apart like this. It's better this way."

Sirius just frowned. He didn't like the thought of taking the princess back into a war, when she could have stayed here, safe with the others, but it was her decision. At the end of the day, she was older and more powerful than him and if he didn't take her than she would find another way to get there, leaving him unable to maintain a close watch on her.

"Flight LHR2001 now boarding from Gate 7."

The tannoy call cut in between them and Ombre zipped off ahead of Sirius, not wanting to have this conversation for a third time. She knew her options. She'd considered everything carefully and she knew what she wanted to do. When it was all said and done, her friends would be much safer if she left, she had proved that today and she could be more useful in England, helping the Order of the Phoenix, than she could in Japan where, with Kari's death, she was little more than a random NPC. The key players worried about her, that was true, but they were better off not having to look after her all the time.

There was enough of a membership in Domino to keep the Clan ticking, to handle any disasters heading their way, and though she would miss the power bonus that she got while she was around members of her Clan, a side effect of their ritual, she was much better off far away from them.

Besides, Domino held too many memories. For much the same reason Kari had fled to Japan after the death of her twin brother, she was now returning to England. She couldn't stand being around the game shop or the Kaiba mansion, seeing everyone tip-toe around her, having to deal with the constant assault of a life now past, not to mention the way Harry flinched whenever she was around like he thought she was going to kill him.

She let out a soft, derisive noise as she joined the end of the short queue and Sirius caught up just before the rest of the passengers descended on the boarding gate. If he'd been worried about that before, he certainly had to be now.

"Boarding pass, please."


	6. A Relatively Quiet Morning

"Why are we waiting here?" Ombre asked quietly, as she and Sirius sat in a backroom at the Leaky Cauldron, eating dinner.

"We can't just walk into the headquarters of the Order," Sirius explained, feeling much more relaxed now they were finally somewhere he considered 'safe' and out of the view of the Muggles. "It's under a rather powerful secrecy charm. I know where it is, but now it's protected by this spell, I could be stood directly opposite and never see it. It's the most powerful charm of its kind and practically impossible to break."

"So why weren't Harry's parents put under this so say unbreakable ward?" Ombre asked, picking at her food. It may have been tea time Friday in Britain but in Japan, where she'd been living for the past few weeks, it was ridiculously early Saturday morning. Sleep, rather than food, was on her list of 'most wanted' right now.

"They were," Sirius growled, "but we trusted the wrong man."

"Wormtail," Ombre seethed, her tone low and dangerous. "Why you thought someone whose animagus form was a rat would be trustworthy is beyond me."

"Lily and James were desperate and I thought..." Sirius sighed, "if I wasn't the Secret Keeper, they couldn't find out where James and Lily were hiding and no one would think that 'poor, pathetic, Peter' would be entrusted with the secret. I hoped that they would target me and leave my friends alone. You can understand that right?"

Ombre nodded. She had seen similar ploys played by the others of her Clan many times. Yugi would hand himself over to prevent many others being injured, Atem would surrender, provided it wasn't a game, to protect those he cared about, Joey would back down to stop harm befalling his friends and family. The idea was universal among close friends.

"What about you?" Sirius asked her. "Haven't you had moments you regretted?"

Ombre froze up for a moment, then looked away. "Of course I have," she replied softly. She didn't have to think about it, the many occasions she'd failed Kari, or hurt her friends accidentally, or worse, the two occasions when she'd done it deliberately.

"Then maybe you shouldn't be so..." Sirius trailed off as the door opened, and before he could say or do anything, Ombre had scrambled to her feet and drawn her wand, pointing it at the door.

"Yet another member of the Pharaoh's guard," Moody spoke as he entered the room, followed closely by Arthur. His tone was laced with amusement. "Problem, girl?" Moody asked as Arthur confirmed who he was to Sirius, noting that Ombre looked uncomfortable.

"I have left the Pharaoh's court," Ombre informed him, "and I would appreciate it if you didn't refer to me as a member of it."

Moody nodded. "Still, you trained with the Guard, did you not?" he asked, though it was less a question and more a statement. Ombre nodded as she picked up her suitcase. "Good. Means you're well trained for combat. Not as well as any Auror but still much better than most. You'd be surprised how many wizards don't know basic combat spells, even after the last war."

Ombre just shrugged as Moody confirmed his identity with Sirius. She knew from the memories embedded in the Orb that people tended to avoid fighting whenever they could help it, not out of a love of pacifism, but because they were afraid to lose their life, or worse their families and livelihoods.

"Right, Ironhide," Moody said, as he pulled two pieces of paper out of his pocket and Sirius convinced Arthur he was who he said he was, "what're the names of Kari's best friends from before she went to Japan?"

"Robyn Golden, Ash Roberts and his little sister Lillian," Ombre stated, having to pause and think for a moment about the latter two. Kari hadn't spoken to them in years, she only knew them through stories. It was a good question to ask someone who could be posing as her, she just wondered how the Order of the Phoenix had found out about them.

Moody handed the pieces of paper to both her and Sirius. "Read it, then destroy it."

Ombre nodded and unfolded her piece. "The Order of the Phoenix is based at..." she read the address silently, then tossed the piece into the fire.

Moody nodded approvingly as Sirius copied her. "Right, then. Gather your bags, Ironhide. We need to move quickly. Professor Dumbledore wants to speak to you before you get settled. You can drop off your stuff first though."

"Yes, sir," Ombre nodded, grabbing her luggage.

Moody examined her for a moment, then let out a soft snort and turned to Sirius. "Black, don't go anywhere once we arrive. Dumbledore wants to speak with you too."

Sirius just scoffed. "Has anyone done anything about that horrendous painting of my mother in the lobby?"

"It's fixed there with a permanent sticking charm and resists magic," Arthur complained. "The best we can go is cover it with a thick curtain with a silencing charm on."

"Sounds like something my mother would do," Sirius sighed in response. "Fine, as long as I don't have to spend any time around it." He picked up his own bags, visibly not looking forward to his 'talk' with Dumbledore. He had a funny feeling that a lot of what Harry had shared with him to try and make him understand, hadn't been shared with Professor Dumbledore and he wasn't sure if he should give the headmaster the information he wanted.

"Shall we, then?" Arthur asked, opening the door and gesturing for them to precede him. "Dumbledore's waiting."

* * *

The sound of a pile of books falling to the floor made Yako jump out of his skin and shoot to his feet, his Material Lion appearing in milliseconds, the summoning made easier because of the tricks Mutou-Shacho had shown him earlier.

He glanced at his brother, who hadn't really slept since the death of their adopted father and who had been teaching the new president of Industrial Illusions as much as he could in the time he had available. Gekko, who had fallen asleep in one of the ridiculously comfortable chairs at the edge of the room, was still out like a light.

He gestured for his Material Lion to stand guard over his brother and headed for the source of the noise, moving past the bookcases that bisected the room and towards the second set of tables and chairs. There in one of the chairs, fast asleep with one arm tucked between her head and the desk she'd been sat at, was the Granger girl that Mutou-Shacho had called in when he'd realised that he was going to need help revising and researching what he was going to need to do in his new position as CEO of a major corporation.

It had seemed odd for a twenty-three year old to call in a fifteen year old girl for help until he had seen her in action, recognising her as more efficient and far more effective than any secretary or researcher he had had under his command in the years since leaving university. He'd recommended that if Mutou-Shacho was going to keep her in his employ, he should probably put her on the payroll and continued where Gekko had left off.

"Miss Granger?" he shook the girl gently, noting that it had been her pile of books that had hit the deck and startled him so badly. "Miss Granger."

The girl opened her eyes slowly, confusion obvious for a moment, then she sat upright, looking embarrassed. "Sorry, was I snoring?"

"No, but I don't believe Mutou-Shacho would be happy if he knew you were neglecting yourself," Yako commented, finding amusment in her sudden look of embarrassment as she started picking up her books. "Perhaps you should go to bed?"

"I..." Hermione paused, glanced at the clock on the wall, then turned back to him. "I'm not the only one," she pointed out politely but with the same sort of tone she had used on the Mutou twins earlier that evening when Yugi had started falling asleep at the dinner table.

"Time zones," Yako shrugged, smirking inwardly at her audacity. "It's still eleven o'clock yesterday morning back home."

Hermione nodded her understanding. "I'm about nine hour ahead of home but..." she paused to let out a yawn, "I'll just tidy up here and then I'll head up."

"Let me give you a hand," said Yako, glancing over some of the books briefly, noting the titles embossed on their spines. One jumped out at him. "Liar's Poker?" he asked, holding up an almost brand new copy of the book, as Hermione placed the last of them back on the table. "I'm surprised to find this in your pile."

"It was on Seto's shelves," Hermione commented, holding out her hand for it, planning on taking it up to her room. "It's not exactly what I need to help Yugi, but there are things in it he can use if I'm reading it correctly."

Yako considered the young Shadow-Touched witch for a moment, wondering how someone her age and with so few business skills had managed to get on a first name basis with the CEO of Kaiba Corp and make herself indispensible to the Pharaoh of the Shadows. He handed the book over with a smile. "When you've finished reading this one and made notes for your boss," he said, "I have several in my personal collection from when I was studying Business Law that you might find interesting. I would recommend them to Mutou-Shacho directly, but it would seem like I was trying to bribe him."

Hermione chuckled, knowing that Yugi wouldn't look at it like that, but Atem might. "He told you to call him Yugi, remember?" she said.

"He needs to get used to people referring to him by title," Yako shook his head, "especially when he's dealing with other businessmen." He wouldn't tell the new CEO's friend his reasoning, but he didn't want to like Yugi. He and his brothers had trained to take over Industrial Illusions ever since their adoption. He felt a little bitter that the company had been left, not in their hands, but in the hands of an untrained novice who had about as much clue about running a company as Yako did about the Shadows.

"He's going to think you don't like him," Hermione sighed, "but I understand." She bowed to him. "Goodnight, Mr Tenma."

"Goodnight, Miss Granger." Yako returned the gesture. He watched her leave, that bubble of intrigue caused by her demeanour still swollen inside him, then he dismissed his Duel Monster and poked his brother awake. "Gekko, bed. Now."

Gekko yawned and stretched, catching the book that fell off of his lap before it could hit the floor. "Where're our rooms again?"

"This way," Yako rolled his eyes as he led his brother out of the library and up the stairs. He couldn't help but wonder how his other brothers, Depre and Richie would react when they arrived for the reading of the will tomorrow and found out that Mutou-Shacho had no clue about what he was getting himself into.

* * *

Ombre barely had time to settle her bags in the bedroom next door to Ginny's when she was called away to the kitchen where Professor Dumbledore was waiting for her.

"Mr Dumbledore," Ombre sighed slightly as she took a seat opposite the man, "excuse me but it's early in the morning where I'm from, so I'm a little overtired."

"I understand, Miss Ironhide," Dumbledore replied, his eyes twinkling and a smile on his face, "I was just hoping that you would answer a few questions for me before you turned in for the night."

"Oh?" Ombre asked, less than pleased that he wanted to do this now and with Snape in the room. "And Snape has to be here why?"

"That's Profes..."

"We're not in school right now," Ombre pointed out, interrupting the surely fast oncoming lecture, "and I won't trust your spy with the information I have."

"Professor Snape..." Dumbledore started.

"Has nothing to do with the Court that's currently setting itself back up, nor is he ever likely to be invited to its ranks. Are you Shadow-Touched, Mr Snape?"

"Of course not. I've had nothing to do with that filthy Muggle..."

"Then I refuse to talk about the Shadow Court with you in the room." She didn't see what the problem was. The potions teacher was a spy for Dumbledore, Sirius had told her that was why he'd gotten off when he'd been arrested for being a Death Eater. That didn't mean that she had to trust him with any information. In fact it was safer not to, considering that anything she told Snape would probably reach the ears of Voldemort somehow.

Dumbledore mentally sighed, having hoped that Ombre would have acquiesced to his request this one time with everything that was going on. He hadn't had enough experience with the dark princess to really understand her motivations. Not that they were the same now that her lighter self was dead, but she had at least been a little more reasonable than the Pharaoh.

"You make a good point, Miss Ironhide," he nodded. "Severus, if you would?" He gestured towards the door and watched as Snape scowled but left them with a scowl pasted across his gaunt features before turning his full attention to the woman before him. "Now, Miss Ironhide, I assume you have questions."

"And you want to trade answers for answers?" Ombre asked sharply. "I may not belong to the upper echelon of the Court anymore, but I will not turn traitor."

"I wouldn't expect you to, but one nation cannot do business with another without them both knowing something of each other," Dumbledore pointed out. "All I ask is that you provide me with that."

Ombre considered the headmaster for a moment or two before speaking. "I can do that, but I want something in return."

Dumbledore shifted slightly. "Oh?" he asked. He was curious, but not so much as to commit himself to something he didn't want.

"I will be the one to Challenge, Game and end Wormtail. No one else. In exchange, I'll share what I can about the magic that's now loose again," Ombre was pleased to see Dumbledore freeze for a moment when she coldly demanded what equated to the right to murder another human being.

"Revenge won't bring your light back, Miss Ironhide," Dumbledore stated coolly, some of the twinkle gone from his eyes.

"No," Ombre agreed, "it won't, but justice won't be served by your courts and I have rights of retribution. As both Kari's sister and a member of the Domino Clan, the law is on my side. I'm going to kill him one way or another. I just want you to promise to stay out of the way." Ombre paused for a moment, considered Dumbledore carefully. "And before you get the ridiculous idea to throw away some of your people trying to stop me, remember this. I'm not like Atem and Yugi. They might balk at hurting others if there's another way, but I will take the shortest route from A to B. If that's through your people, so be it."

She knew he was in her head and scanning her memories even as they talked terms and conditions. Part of her wished that she had the Orb of Light on her so she could do to him what Yugi had done to Alexander the Great, redirecting the King's mind reading and getting the Roman's mental probe lost within the Shadow item he owned. She didn't think even Dumbledore would find escaping from over five thousand years of stored memories to be an easy task.

Still, she had her mental defences. The Pharaoh wasn't the only one that could deliberately lay a trap. Hers were less like the Mirror Force-styled trap Atem had set up in Harry's mind and more the insidious twisting, turning maze variety, complete with hundreds of traps, plus she'd used the Orb's powers to hide the memories he wanted so well that even she struggled to access them. It was harsh, barely remembering her friends and family besides the unwavering loyalty that everyone had to Yugi just because he was who he was, but it was necessary.

She would not give them up. She refused.

"You know that's considered a threat where I come from," Ombre commented, putting on a less than concerned tone as she felt him trying to shift through her memories, too used to her light doing the same to not notice. "Invading another's mind without their permission, I mean."

She felt the presence in her mind hesitate briefly before beating a hasty retreat. She fought to hide a smirk as Dumbledore's spectral presence withdraw completely.

"I..."

"There's no point apologising," Ombre held up a hand, interrupting what was certain to be an impressive piece of artistically weaved lies. "I know you're not sorry. Just don't do it again or I will retaliate."

Dumbledore watched the woman, finding himself unsurprised that he believed she would at least try to follow through with her threat. He nodded his understanding. "We were talking about a deal?"

Ombre chuckled slightly. "Changing topics, Dumbledore?" she sneered. "Fine, I suppose I can let it slide this time. Now, back to the deal. I give you information, you stay out of my way when I deal with Wormtail. Yes, no?"

* * *

"I must say, I didn't expect you to be up," Solomon chuckled at Joey as the pair of them waited on the doorstep for the delivery that was due in a matter of minutes. "Not after the last couple of days. I thought you'd be too tired."

"I promised didn't I?" Joey replied, nonchalantly waving off the man who'd taken him in when his real parents abandoned him. "Besides I needed to get out the house. I was going stir crazy."

Solomon just nodded. When Joey had arrived last night, the old man had feared something else had happened. Instead, Joey had asked the Game Store owner a big favour. If he agreed to work for nothing until it was paid off, he wanted one of the boxes of the new boosters that were coming in today. Solomon was personally of the opinion that it was a little late to be rearranging his deck for the tournament, which was due to start at midday, but knew that Joey needed the new cards as much as he needed the help.

So Joey had come over, accompanied by his Red Eyes Black Dragon who was, for the fourth day in a row, curled up on the roof of the Game Shop. Solomon couldn't help but wonder how the roof continued to support the dragon's weight, but Tobias had assured him that he wouldn't be on the roof if it would cause it to collapse. That reassurance, along with the fact that a dragon on the roof wasn't the weirdest thing that had happened in the last few days, let Solomon ignore the problem of dragon plus roof and get on with his job.

Dead on 6am, the delivery van pulled around the corner and puttered down the road.

Solomon was both looking forward to and dreading this delivery. The store was doing all right, its unique status as the home of the King of Games attracted the tourists while the regular tournaments, friendly advice and knowledgeable staff ensured regular patrons, however, custom had tapered off to almost nothing since Shadowmorn. This delivery was expensive and if the cards didn't sell it would be bad.

He knew there were a lot of people waiting for these cards though, not just Joey and the rest of the Clan. It was why he'd brought so many boxes in. Hopefully those customers would be by later on in the day.

"Hiya, Mutou-Sensei," the delivery driver grinned at him. He knew Solomon rather well. He'd been running the route for years after all and quite liked the elderly Doctor of Archaeology.

"Hi, Takata-San," Solomon returned the grin, and Joey helped him to his feet. "You should have quite a few boxes for me today."

"Indeed I do," Takata nodded. "I think these belong to you too..." With that, he opened the doors of the van and out shot a blonde woman.

"Hi, Uncle Solomon!" the woman said with a broad smile and hugged him.

"Uhhh, what?" he blinked, wondering if he should press his luck. What the hell, it wasn't everyday he was spontaneously hugged by a cute young woman. "Why don't you give your uncle a kiss?"

"Grandpa!" Joey complained, loudly.

"Little brother!" the young woman let go and glomped Joey.

"Ack!" Joey attempted to jump back, only to feel her grip on him tighten. "Golden, get off!"

"Good morning, sir," a somewhat familiar voice came from the van and Solomon turned away from the spectacle of Joey trying to escape the young woman to look at what else Takata had brought him.

"Bakura-San?" Solomon asked, amused by the sheepish look on the white haired young man's face as he tried to get a scandalised teen, who looked around Harry's age and was staring at the sight of Joey trying to escape the hug, to help unload some of the boxes out of the van.

"Hi, Mutou-Sensei," Ryou nodded, "Golden got us a lift with the deliveries, hope you don't mind."

"Golden?" Solomon asked, glancing at the woman, who was still winding Joey up.

"Robyn Golden," Ryou clarified flatly, "she basically kidnapped us Tuesday and has been dragging us across the continent since. I would suggest you never use the trans-Siberian line. Ever."

"I said I was sorry!" the teenager exclaimed.

The sound of the teen's voice made Joey stop for a moment before he managed to pull himself free and draw his wand, glowering at the pair by the van.

"Bakura! And Malfoy! Hey!" Joey protested as Robyn grabbed his wand arm.

"Ryou. Not Bakura," she scolded him. "You remember Ryou, right?"

"Yeah, sorry Ryou," Joey murmured an apology, "I thought Bakura had..."

"I understand," Ryou said with a dismissive gesture, wondering if he should even have bothered coming if Joey's reaction was going to be the typical one, "my Other was prone to coming back from impossible situations."

Joey nodded then glowered at Draco. "And you brought him, why?"

"Because someone has to keep an eye on him," Robyn tutted, "after all his father's a wanted criminal, his mother's not in any fit state to do it and his guardian was killed during Shadowmorn."

Joey was momentarily struck dumb with horror then his mouth caught up with his brain. "Wait, wait, waitwaitwaitwait! His guardian was killed during Shadowmorn?"

"Yep," Robyn chirped.

"And he was added to the Clan list by that blasted fine print?"

"Yep," Robyn looked worryingly happy.

"He is NOT staying at the mansion!" Joey growled. "No way, no how!"

"I think we have a lot to talk about," Solomon interrupted what was likely to blow up into an impressive row.

"Indeed," Robyn concurred, giving Joey a sharp look. "Will the Pharaoh immediately require the Millennium Items I've been holding for him?"

"N...No." The sudden change of subject threw the blonde Shadow-Touched Duellist and he shook his head, wondering which of the bags Golden was carrying contained the Millennium items that had been stolen from Yugi, and how she'd managed to get them back from the thief who'd taken them in the first place. "I don't believe so." He paused. "Hey, Golden, you know lots of weird stuff right?" he asked, earning himself a bemused look in response. "Any idea how to recover magic faster?"

"Cookie?" she offered, opening a small paper bag filled with them. "I picked up the recipe in Amsterdam."

Joey blinked at her for a moment, remembering all too well the bad reaction Atem had to the millipede Golden had fed him, then looked at Ryou.

"You might as well try one," was the reply, "she'll sulk if you don't."

"She dragged us from place to place getting a cook book together," Draco grouched, "then decided the best recipe was the first one she picked up."

"Hey!" Robyn protested. "Only the best for my sickly little brothers."

Joey glowered at Robyn, not really trusting her but aware that she had been a close friend of Kari's and that Kari had often mentioned how much Robyn had looked after her. If she'd decided to transfer that onto them, it had to be a good thing, right?

Robyn's cheerful mood didn't falter under his gaze and she shook the bag at him.

"They restore magic?" he asked her directly as he picked one up and examined the chocolate chip cookie intently.

"Yeppers! I tested them and everything."

"On us!" Draco complained.

The thought of Draco being used as a guinea pig appealed to Joey and he glanced at Robyn, who looked really pleased with herself.

"Well, yes," her grin faded into a sly smile. "Control." She pointed at Draco. "Half." At Ryou. "Weird." At herself. "So nothing to worry about."

Joey took a bite of the cookie and beamed as he felt a sudden rush of energy, and the fatigue from the previous late night, early morning, not to mention his summoning vanished. "Golden, I think you might have just solved a huge problem."

* * *

The Weasley horde was holed up in one of the bedrooms discussing their plans.

When they'd been hiding in the Room of Requirement they'd at least had their own space and plenty to do. Here at the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix they were all crammed into the tiny rooms that made up the home of the 'Ancient and Noble Black Family'.

And that wasn't the only problem.

Their status as Shadow-Touched was both a blessing and a curse. It was a blessing because they couldn't be left out of certain order meetings, since they were the experts on what the magic that was now loose among the populace could do. It was a curse, however, because they were being watched like hawks almost constantly.

"It's almost as if," Fred complained as he sprawled over the bed, "they think we're suddenly going to turn into Dark Lords and start going on a mass murder spree."

"Lords and Ladies," Ginny poked her brother, though she couldn't help but agree with his assessment of the situation.

"Of course they don't like us using it. It's dark magic," Ron grimaced. "As much as we've pretended otherwise for the last few years. I mean it steals souls and drives people insane. We all know this..."

"Dark isn't evil, brother dearest," George flicked his younger brother's ear and got glared at in response. "It's only evil if you use it for evil. Unless you want to believe Yugi and the others are evil."

Ron hesitated. He remembered some of the horror stories that he'd heard over the years of the sort of thing a fully trained Shadow Mage could do, the tales of what Yugi and his friends had been through over the years.

"Oh, come off it," Ginny swatted at him. "I'd like to point out that the only Shadow Game Yugi's activated since we've known him was against Malfoy, who had been asking for it for over a year by then. Is that evil?"

"No, but when the Shadows were slipping out of control they were attacking people. That's not something that 'good' magic does," Ron pointed out, "and you've heard the stories. How many times have people tried to use it to kill someone or worse? There is no 'good' use for something that steals souls."

"There's no good use for a spell that turns your bogeys into bats either, but Gin-Gin isn't evil..." George grinned at him.

"And that's her best spell," Fred finished.

Ginny glared at her brother. "Call me that again and prepare to be sneezing bats for longer than Yami was in the Puzzle."

"Five thousand years to perfect pranking in?" George asked with a sly smirk. "Awesome."

"Five thousand years sneezing bats," Ginny pointed out.

"Okay, less awesome," Fred allowed.

"How can you all be so relaxed?" Ron grouched. "There's a highly dangerous, out of control type of magic loose and we're getting blamed for letting it infect the Muggles!"

"Then we'll just have to take responsibility and teach them how to use it properly," Ginny announced primly, amused that her brothers had not thought of such a simple answer.

Fred went to open his mouth but was interrupted by the door opening and Ombre stumbling into the room, looking like she wanted nothing more than to blow up several people or objects and then sleep for a year.

Having seen an overly exhausted dark side explode before, the Weasleys fled.

* * *

Yugi was fully aware that Atem wasn't happy. While he munched away at a pile of cookies provided by a certain crazy Seer and waited for Pegasus's children to arrive, along with several others, Atem was trying to work out the best plan of action.

Both of the Mutous were aware that Seto needed the press coverage that would come with having the big names in his tournament, but there were hundreds of conflicting factors that needed to be thought about.

Yugi was certain that he was fine to compete, but Atem didn't feel comfortable with him going when he was only just allowed out of bed even if Serenity would be trailing him, along with a pair of bodyguards. That was if they got out of the reading of the will in time. He was supposed to be fighting in an exhibition duel with Atem before the big event kicked off but the tournament couldn't be delayed again.

If they were delayed for too long, Atem was going to leave and Harry had agreed to fight the Pharaoh instead, but it wasn't the duel that everyone was waiting for, nor would it be as effective. Atem never pulled his punches when he was duelling but there were only two people he could truly duel to his full potential against and one of those had already been in an exhibition match.

There was a knock on the door and then Akane, in human form, entered with another woman, a pretty brunette who didn't look to be more than twenty-five and had a very vulpine look to her. Yugi frowned slightly as he sensed something off about her, but couldn't tell what.

"Mutou Yugi-San," Akane bowed to him, "I thought you might like to meet your other bodyguard for this afternoon."

"Good morning, Akane-San," Yugi stood and returned the bow, the novelty of treating her as if she was an equal was apparent on the Nekomata's features. "You can just call me by my given name, it's easier that way."

"Yes, Yugi-Denka," Akane nodded, earning herself the pleasure of seeing Yugi look horrendously embarrassed.

"N...no. It's Yugi. Just Yugi," Yugi stammered. "Seriously, it was bad enough when people I don't even know were calling me Shacho, without..." He paused, realised he was letting his emotions run away with him, and swiftly shut up.

Akane and the newcomer looked at each other, wondering if any of Yugi's friends were aware he was likely to have a minor meltdown if anything else happened before he had a chance to talk everything through with someone, then Akane got back to business.

"This is my colleague, Lotus," she informed him with a slightly sour look on her face, "the pair of us will be looking after you during the tournament and when you're away from the mansion."

"Lotus-San," Yugi bowed to the other woman, before pausing to take a better look at her, "you're like Akane."

"She most certainly is not!" Akane hissed. Yugi could easily imagine that had she been in cat form her fur would have been on end.

"Of course not," Lotus agreed smoothly. "We foxes are so much more dignified than you cats."

"Foxes?" Yugi wondered aloud, then his eyes widened. He stared at Lotus, freezing up as stories he'd heard in his childhood flooded back to him. "You're a kitsune?"

"Five tails," Lotus nodded before looking at Akane. "He's fast. Can I keep him?"

"He's not yours to keep, Lotus. You'd have to fight his family for him and you really shouldn't cross his brother," Akane pointed out with a growl.

The aforementioned brother made his presence known by coughing lightly. Yugi watched as both animal spirits jumped and turned to Atem, who had been sitting quietly in the corner. His presence had been requested by the lawyer who did all of Industrial Illusions' paperwork, but he'd planned on staying silent unless he had to. Less because he was trying to play the silent bodyguard and more because he was trying to bounce ideas between Yugi, Harry, Mahado and getting about thirty various responses in reply from various Duel Monsters on broadcast mode, some of which he'd never met face to face.

"Hello Mutou Yami-San," Lotus bowed to the Pharaoh, who waved her off, not really worried about her question about keeping Yugi. Yugi had shared the legends he'd been told as a kid with him a long time ago, and though he had no intention of enraging the kitsune (he did, after all like not being cursed), he didn't think she was serious in her intent, nor would he allow her to take Yugi from the mansion if she was.

Before the two animal spirits could say another word, the door opened again and the Tenmas walked in, followed by their brothers, the Kaiba brothers and three men Yugi had never met before. The two bodyguards reverted to their natural forms and stood either side of Yugi as the Mutou twins got to their feet.

"Mutou-Shacho," the three men bowed to Yugi, "it's an honour to meet you."

"I feel the same way," Yugi reciprocated, "I hope we can work together to get this sorted as fast as possible."

"On this we're agreed," one of the men said, running a hand through his short black hair before pausing and looking sheepish. "Depre Scott. I run Industrial Illusions Europe."

"Richie Merced," the other young man with him said. Yugi couldn't help but be impressed that the guy's spiky blonde hair was, quite possibly, more ridiculous than his own. "Russia's my lookout."

"Yugi Mutou," Yugi introduced himself, though he knew it was unnecessary, "and my brother Yami Mutou." He pointed to Atem. The pair bowed to the Pharaoh, but unlike Yugi, who had tried to give Pegasus's children a bow denoting that he didn't consider them below him, Atem had barely nodded to the pair, causing them to bristle slightly.

Any possible argument that might have arisen from Atem's lack of respect was cut short by the third man, an older gentleman whose brown hair had grey mingled in and whose green eyes took in the room around him quickly before nodding to Yugi and Atem. "The Mutou twins," he said. "Good. Sit. All of you. So you can see the screen. I'm fully aware that time wasted is money ill spent."

Atem looked a little taken aback by the man's abruptness but Yugi nodded before sitting down and gesturing for his dark to do the same. He'd wondered what the DVD player and huge TV was about, and as everyone else settled the man put a disk in the machine.

The TV flickered to life and Pegasus appeared on the screen.

"Welcome one and all," Pegasus's voice caused both Yugi and Atem to tense up as both remembered the last time the CEO of Industrial Illusions had spoken to them on a tape. Lotus nudged Yugi's knee reassuringly, mistaking resurgent fear and panic for grief. The heir patted her on the head absentmindedly as Pegasus continued. "If you're watching this, then obviously something unfortunate has happened and I can no longer grace you with my presence."

' _Typical Pegasus type bluster,'_ Atem grouched over the link.

"I suppose some of you are wondering what you're doing here, especially you, Kaiba-boy," the ex-CEO of I2 was on a roll, it was obvious, "I would hope that my sons have already sought you out, Yugi-boy, and informed you of my wishes but still, I should get the most important part out of the way."

_'Oh good. The sooner our part is over, the sooner we can get ready for our exhibition match.'_

Yugi had to fight to keep a straight face at Atem's comment. Trust his dark to consider that much more important than the reading of the will.

"As you've probably been informed, Yugi-boy, I require someone to be the face and voice of my company until such time as one of my sons takes my place. You're probably wondering why I haven't asked Kaiba-boy to do it."

The thought had crossed Yugi's mind multiple times in the last twenty four hours.

"You see, Yugi-boy, you understand the game in its entirety. Its past, its present and its future. The mundane and the magical. Kaiba-boy understands the business side of the company, yes, but you know the players, those who make the company as big a success as it is. Who make the game everything it is. Without someone in control who comprehends that, Industrial Illusions will never survive."

This admission shook Yugi slightly and he looked at each of Pegasus's children. He found grimaces, stunned expressions and a small, understanding smile.

"This doesn't mean, Yugi-boy, that my sons don't have the ability to learn all this, but quite obviously I no longer have the ability to teach them. That, I'm afraid, I'll have to leave to you."

"I'll try," Yugi promised.

"I know you'll try, Yugi-boy."

Yugi tensed up again, thinking for a moment that Pegasus was responding directly.

"However, until you've managed it, I must ask you to lead my company. Once my boys know what you've always known about the game, then you may pick one of them to take over from you," the deceased CEO laughed, "oh, don't get me wrong, Yugi-boy, I understand that this will take up a considerable amount of your time and I don't expect you to do this for nothing. My lawyer, Tony Strong, will have the full details down on paper for you, but I'm leaving you my vacation home and the island it's on. You'll remember it rather well. The island's name is Duellist Kingdom."

Atem let out a sharp hiss and Yugi winched when the name was spoken.

"And that's not all," Pegasus continued as Strong passed out the appropriate documentation, "as you're probably aware, I'm a multibillionaire. This means I have a lot of money to pass out to anyone I see fit. In exchange for your work with my company, I'm leaving you five hundred million dollars..."

* * *

"Harry?" Joey asked, worried when Harry's running commentary stopped dead in its tracks. "Harry?" He poked the black haired teen, who didn't respond, too busy trying to recover from the sudden shock of two of his link partners breaking in the same instant and his own reaction to the sum total of Yugi's inheritance. "You all right? How much was it?"

"Five..." Harry tried to pull himself together, "hundred..."

"That's it? Five hundred dollars for running his company?" Joey looked offended.

Harry shook his head.

"Then what?" Hermione asked, a bit more gently.

"Five hundred million."

Hermione, Joey and everyone else in the room with Harry broke too.

* * *

It was quite something, Ginny mused as she explored the Black House, when it was easier to sneak around the headquarters of someone who was supposedly involved in a war than it was to sneak around your school.

Everyone else was asleep, but in school there was always someone awake and patrolling the corridors, no matter what time of day, whereas here there was no one doing the same. The adults might have thought they were safe under the Fidelius charm, but Ginny hadn't forgotten that Harry's parents had been under the same ward and they hadn't been protected from Voldemort.

Not that she expected Dumbledore, who was the Secret Keeper, would give them up like Wormtail had Harry's parents, but it only required one slip up and their hiding place would be revealed and then they'd all be in trouble and...

She paused as she realised she had hit Moody levels of paranoid. She could see where the train of thought had come from. Over the last few years she'd watched or heard of her friends getting hurt and worse because of careless errors, accidents that could have been avoided with enough foresight or sheer bloody mindedness on the part of whoever was attacking them at the time and had learnt certain lessons because of it.

She'd learnt discretion due to necessity. After all, when your 'on again, off again' boyfriend was the Vice-CEO of a major company and had as many secrets as Mokuba did it was necessary to learn when to talk about those secrets and when to keep your mouth shut.

Caution, too. When she'd first gotten herself involved with the Pharaoh's court she hadn't realised what she was getting herself into. She had, however, learned quickly, but that hadn't been what had taught her one of her most important lessons. No, that had come from her stupidity with Riddle's diary.

She felt a little better knowing that she hadn't been the only one who had been daft enough to put their trust in an object that talked back. Of course Riddle's diary and Yugi's Puzzle were rather different, after all Yugi had been able to see and interact with Yami long before the Pharaoh had gotten his own body. Riddle hadn't been able to take spirit form until the end, nor had she been able to talk with him soul to soul like Yugi had with the spirit of his Puzzle.

She just wondered what it would take for the adults to learn the lessons that the youngsters already knew. Be cautious, yes, even to the point of paranoia, but don't hide yourself away when trouble comes calling. It didn't help. If you were a target, even a safely squirreled away target, sooner or later you were going to need to fight. So many people seemed impressed that they'd taken to training themselves, no one seemed to realise that it was because they'd been learning to fight back.

Supposedly, the whole reason that they were training like they were was for self defence, but no one really thought of it that way. Harry was learning so he could protect his link partners. Mokuba wanted to be able to defend his big brother instead of having to rely on him the whole time. Even Yugi, who almost a decade after the threats to his life had started, hated fighting and had no malice in him, was learning to fight so he could preserve the lives of the ones he loved.

All so they could go on the offensive and not end up in hiding, depending on other people to do what they could have done if they'd just bothered to take the chance to learn, which was something that the adults belonging to the 'Order of the Phoenix' didn't seem to be able to understand.

From what she'd overheard, and using Fred and George's Extendable Ear, they'd overheard a lot. The Order, which was supposedly created to fight Voldemort and the Death Eaters, did very little fighting and a lot more standing around talking about things that had already happened. There had been disappearances this summer, families vanishing, both magical and Muggle. Since Shadowmorn there had been a spate of murders as Death Eaters tried to suppress the Shadow-Touched that lived in England. The Order had a spy in Voldemort's ranks, why didn't they do anything about these things?

Were they waiting for some hero to come down from on high and save them? Well, they'd be waiting a long time. Dumbledore had ostracised the only people Ginny would consider heroes and without the war nipping at their heels she had a horrible feeling that it would be up to wizarding Britain to save itself.

"Can I move to Japan now please?" Ginny asked the dark corridor.

"Only if we can...hey!" George yelped as he dove to one side to avoid any possible hex that his sister could have sent his way. Ginny, who had jumped a mile and drawn her wand before she'd even registered who it was that was speaking, glared at the twins.

"What are you two up to?" she growled at him, having thought she was the only one awake.

"We should be asking you the same thing," Fred replied, not admitting to the fact that his partner monster, or rather the one he shared with his twin, had woken the pair of them up when Ginny had gone wandering past their door.

"After all," George continued as he waved at her from the floor, "isn't past your bed time?"

"George?"

"Yes, Gin-Gin?" George asked with a grin.

"That's it!"

Fred dissolved into laughter as his brother had to run for his life to avoid his sister's hexes.

* * *

"Are you sure you're up to this?" Serenity fussed as she checked Yugi over one last time before he entered the arena, concerned about the bruising that still hadn't gone down.

"I'm fine, Serenity, honest," Yugi chuckled quietly, waving her off as his bodyguards, Akane the nekomata and Lotus the kitsune, checked out the area while in human form. He had wondered how the pair were going to do their jobs, considering that unless they wanted to pass for Duel Monsters they were going to freak people out, but the idea of having them take human form and wear security uniforms had been a smart one. No one had batted an eyelid at the fact that the Mutou twin who had been key to stopping Shadowmorn and was still recovering from an attempt on his life had two members of the security team following him around.

"There's an awful lot of people out there," Akane grouched after a quick peek outside. "Kaiba would pick the area he could pack with the biggest crowd, wouldn't he?"

"That would be typical Seto," Yugi agreed with a smile, actually looking forward to the upcoming match and finding the disgruntlement of his bodyguards over the sheer number of people who wanted to praise him, growl at him or just plain get his autograph rather amusing. It certainly helped to get his mind off of the fact he had suddenly become the new CEO of Industrial Illusions and a multi-millionaire.

"I get that this is an exhibition match," Akane grumbled, "but wouldn't it have been safer to have you and your brother duel somewhere secure and just broadcast it to the crowds in the arena?"

"Yes," Yugi sighed, "it would, but that isn't the point of the match. The exhibition match isn't about showing off our skills. It's about showing the public that even the most powerful Duel Monsters won't harm anyone if summoned using Kaiba Corp technology. We can't do that if we're kept away from the crowds."

"I still think it's a bad idea for you to let yourself get clobbered by a God Monster." Serenity grouched, "Holograms or not."

Yugi opened his mouth to protest that he didn't plan on getting clobbered, but quickly shut it again. He was, after all, the one who had insisted that Atem play the God Monsters during their duel. He did have a plan to beat them but that didn't mean he wasn't going to get hit by one if it didn't work.

"See, even he thinks it's a bad idea," Lotus sniggered, less than delighted by the crowds but enjoying the opportunity to tease her charge.

"Oh, I'm fully aware that it's probably a bad idea, but it's what everyone wants to see, someone getting squished by the God Monsters," Yugi shrugged. "I don't plan on being that person but..." He gave the others a sheepish grin.

Serenity sighed, "As your medical advisor I can categorically state that asking Yami to use the Gods against you was a bad idea." She paused. "Wait, isn't this going to be the first time Yami's used the God Monsters against you that you haven't had one or two in your deck?"

Yugi nodded.

"A hundred yen on Mutou Yami-San," Akane stated before the nod had even finished.

Lotus caught herself mid-breath. She had been about to say that she didn't take sucker bets, but she was aware of Yugi's reputation. If anyone could defeat the Gods, it would be him. "I'll take you up on that."

Yugi gave Akane a look of feigned disappointment as he heard the announcer winding up. The duel with Atem was just the beginning of the opening ceremony for the tournament and to be honest, though he was still a little tired, he was looking forward to the whole weekend.

"I'd better get out there," Yugi stated, giving the trio a reassuring look as he headed for the door.

Lotus beat him there. "Ladies first," she scolded him before darting out the door.

"She's a lady?" Akane muttered under her breath as she followed the kitsune out the door, which made Serenity chuckle.

"Shall we?" Yugi asked Serenity, offering the Apprentice Healer his arm.

Serenity blinked at Yugi, put her hand on his arm and exited the room with him, leaving the peaceful ready room behind and rejoining the insanity of the outside world.


	7. Trouble Ahoy

"Mutou Yugi!" Serenity growled as she tended to the swelling on Yugi's head, a memento from the time Obelisk had punched him into the wall. "I told you getting clobbered by a God Monster was a bad idea!"

Yugi smiled softly, more than used to his friends ranting at him when he got hurt. "It was necessary," he shrugged, "and it certainly got the crowds going."

Atem, who had forgone heading straight out to challenge people in order to ensure Obelisk had not seriously injured his hikari, just watched Yugi carefully. Yugi had had a face down card when Obelisk struck. If it had been anyone else he would not be suspicious, but he knew Yugi better than that. He was certain, if Yugi had wanted, he could have blocked or even dodged that blow.

Had Yugi really thrown the duel, and if so why?

"I thought the idea was to prove that Duel Monsters summoned using Duel Disks weren't dangerous," Akane growled as she and Lotus covered the door. "I mean getting hurt seems a little counterproductive to be honest."

Yugi looked sheepish at that but it was Atem who answered her, "No one seemed to be too worried about it by that point. I think they were too busy wondering why no one else had come up with the combos Yugi used to take down Ra and Osiri...Slifer before now." Atem grimaced as he corrected himself.

"Besides, everyone knows when it comes to duelling using holograms, someone is going to get knocked on their butt," Lotus allowed. "If someone didn't, it would look suspicious."

"Knocked on his butt's fine, knocked across the stadium however..." Serenity glared at Yugi, who at least had the grace to look sorry.

"Hadn't you better get going?" Akane asked Atem. "I mean all the duels will be starting soon."

"I'll be going shortly, I just need a word with Yugi first. Privately," Atem's tone made Yugi flinch. He had known Atem was ticked off from the moment that he had worked out what Yugi had done, but had not quite realised quite how much until his dark half had spoken. Atem was, after all, rather good at keeping his emotions locked away from his link partners.

"We'll be right outside," Serenity spoke first, noting the tension between the two guys.

"Not leaving," Akane shook her head when Serenity tried to usher her and Lotus out of the room. "We're supposed to be guarding Yugi."

Atem scowled. He wanted to have words with Yugi but he refused to engage in such an important discussion while there were people watching. If Yugi had thrown the Duel, as he was half worried was the case, then he did not want anyone else around when he admitted it.

Still, if they would not leave them alone for long he had another way of dealing with the problem.

Tugging on the bond that linked him to Yugi, he dragged both himself and his hikari into the corridor between their soul rooms. He was not happy to find Yugi was avoiding looking at him when the hikari realised where they were.

"You _did_ throw the match, didn't you?" Atem's growl caused Yugi to wince.

"I..." Yugi's shoulders sank as he trailed off. It was all the confirmation Atem needed. Then he took a closer look at Yugi, realising the guilt his hikari was radiating was too great for the residue of merely a single game.

"How many for how long?"

"W...What?" Yugi gasped. "What do you? I..."

Atem's scowl deepened as Yugi stopped midsentence. Yugi had never lied to him. Obviously that was not about to change. He was not sure he was happy about it. On the one hand if Yugi told him the truth he would know, for certain, if the victories over the years had really been victories or whether Yugi had been handing him the wins. On the other he was not sure he wanted to know if Yugi had been letting him win for a long time...

"Well?"

"It's... I'm sorry," mumbled Yugi. Not a good start. "It's not been every duel. I promise. It's just..."

Atem let him gather his thoughts, holding his temper in check. It did not matter how long they took in the corridors, it would seem like milliseconds in the real world. That was the beauty of interacting mind to mind.

"You earned the King of Games title yourself," Yugi told him, hoping to appease his dark half with that, "I never threw that first official duel between us, you just crushed me."

Atem's memory of the Duel was a little different. It had indeed looked like he were beating Yugi with ease, while in all honesty it was everything he could do to avoid getting hit by one of the multiple turnabouts he knew his hikari was capable of. Still he said nothing, letting Yugi talk it out.

"I didn't start throwing the duels 'til after I'd worked out a way to stop all three of the God Monsters and that took me a while. Once I knew I could handle them, I managed to work out a way around the rest of your deck but there was no way that I could use it."

"Why?" Atem's scowl turned into a look of honest confusion at Yugi's words.

"Wasn't safe," Yugi's statement was honest truth and Atem knew it, "we had to stay almost unbeatable. You know as well as I do that the moment it looked like we could be beaten with cards you could get from any booster pack, the bad guys would start using the combos I used to beat you to steal souls, or Millennium Items, or..."

Yugi trailed off but Atem knew what he was getting at and it cooled his temper somewhat. It was a well known fact that any time they played a card it was recorded. There was page after page online listing their decks and what they had played so people could emulate them, hoping to share the same success with a copy of their deck as Yugi or Atem would. If Yugi pulled something off that defeated the God Monsters, others would surely try and use the same tactics.

That was not the full story though. Atem could sense Yugi was still hiding something from him. Part of him wanted to leave it alone but he was still much too cross to drop it.

"So what's the rest of it?" the Pharaoh asked his heir, pride piqued by the fact that Yugi had been holding back for at least two years, if not longer.

The modern-born Mutou's look of panic caused Atem to do a double take. Yugi was frightened of telling him?

"Yugi, I just want to know your reasons, I won't judge you for them," Atem tried to be reassuring, realising that this was much more important than his grievances.

He watched as Yugi built up the courage to speak, wondering where the bright, brave, confident, calm hikari he knew and loved as a brother had gone and who had replaced him with this nervous, terrified scrap of a young man and mentally kicked himself for reducing Yugi to this. He was so busy kicking himself in fact that he nearly missed Yugi's whispered answer.

"I don't want to be stronger than you."

Atem's entire train of thought crashed and burned at those words and he stared at his hikari, completely uncomprehending. Of anything he could have expected, that had never been it.

Yugi's slight chuckle snapped him out of his stunned state and he tilted his head curiously at the young man, wondering what was suddenly so funny.

"I'm sorry, Ya...Atem, but I didn't expect to break you," Yugi corrected himself, making the Pharaoh wince slightly. Having his name back was a blessing, yes, but it felt unnatural for Yugi to call him by it and not only because it had been Yugi's name in the past too. Everything they had been through together over the last decade had been as Yugi and Yami, not Yugi and Atem and he really did prefer the name he had taken on when he had been a lost and lonely spirit over his Egyptian one.

Atem was the name of the Father of the Gods, it was also a girl's name depending on how you pronounced it while Yami was the name Yugi had given him when they'd first really started working together, the name that he had lived by for the last decade.

Yami was who he wanted to remain to his hikari. Not Atem, the Pharaoh of Egypt who had given his life to save his country, but Yami, Yugi's guardian, brother and friend.

"What did you expect?" Atem asked, still curious.

Yugi's amusement fled and he looked away again, seeming to find the floor much more interesting than Yami's face.

"I don't know. You to be mad?" Yugi's comment was more like a question. "You're always pushing me to be my best, I figured that you'd be furious if you knew I was holding back. And I was right."

Atem could not deny it. He had been fuming when he realised the truth, but he was not cross with Yugi for not wanting to surpass him. Confused by, yes, but not cross.

"Yugi?" he asked, wanting to pull the conversation back to, in his opinion, its most important point. "Why don't you want to be stronger than me?"

Yugi hesitated before answering, formulating his answer carefully.

"The truth, Yugi, not what you think I want to hear."

Yugi's cringe was enough to tell the Pharaoh that he had hit the nail on the head.

"You'll leave."

Yami stopped dead for a moment, then his eyes widened as he remembered his own words from oh so long ago. He never imagined that Yugi was awake when he had that conversation with Joey. Their friend had finally worked up the courage to ask Yami if he planned on sticking around forever now he had his own body and Atem had told him the truth. He would stick around until Yugi no longer needed him and then he would leave.

"I'd been working on a way to defeat the Gods for a long time before that," Yugi informed him. "Ever since we got them, in case they were stolen from us or someone used Exchange, and I'd worked out that evening how to do it."

"And then I said that..." Atem understood. Not just where the reasoning had come from but just how long Yugi had been keeping the secret for. That conversation had been back during their second year at Hogwarts, almost three years ago now. It was then something inside the Pharaoh clicked into place and the anger rose again as he realised he had been holding back on getting his memories because Yugi had needed him, only for his hikari to have been holding back the entire time. "You've been throwing every duel we've fought for the last three years?"

"Not every duel!" Yugi shook his head violently. "I promise that it's not been every duel. I just..."

"If you'd just asked, I would have stayed, Yugi!" Atem snarled. "If you had told me you didn't want me to go, I would have done what I've done now, had the tablet brought to Japan! But what you did, making me believe you still needed me? That's not fair!"

"I do need you!" Yugi's words were more a pleading sob than a shout. "I need you here with me. Not as Pharaoh but as my friend. Without your support I... I don't know what I'd do."

"Then why did you lie to me?" Atem's tone caused Yugi's trembling to increase. "Why didn't you trust me enough to share all of this with me?"

"Because I was scared!" Yugi finally snapped, anger and fear and misery all piled into those words. "Because I was frightened you'd hate me for not being able to let go! Because I _knew_ what I was doing wasn't fair but you seemed happy to be the strongest out the two of us! Because you **_liked_** being able to use the excuse that I wasn't strong enough on my own to avoid going to Egypt!"

Silence fell between the two like a heavy curtain as Yugi looked away and Atem stared at him, unsure how to respond. Yugi was correct in that he had been happier when he thought he was the stronger of the two of them and he had enjoyed not having to come up with another excuse to avoid Egypt like the plague.

He could never hate Yugi though, no matter how upset he got. Where the young man had gotten that idea from, Atem would never know. In all the years they had been partners, Atem had never once hated Yugi for anything. Envied maybe, got frustrated at certainly, but never hated.

Moving across the corridor swiftly, not giving Yugi time to back off, he wrapped his arms around his closest friend, brother and hikari in a hug. He mentally growled at himself when he felt Yugi flinch momentarily, only for that anger to vanish when Yugi burst into tears, clinging to his dark half as the emotions that Yugi had tried to bury for months suddenly flooded to the surface.

He had expected this, they had been through too much in the last couple of months and Yugi had been at the brunt of all of it. They had lost Kari, nearly Harry too, then there had been the capsule monsters fiasco, where Yugi, who hated fighting, had had to physically go toe-to-toe with not only the local monstrosities, but his possessed best friend and the dark ghost of King Alexander the Great, who had been trying his best to not only kill him, but murder his family and friends right in front of his eyes.

That was not even stepping into the quagmire of what had happened in the Memory World, where Yugi had survived a murder attempt, defeated (and by extension killed in self defence) his long-term enemy, Bakura, brought Atem back from the other side and then had fourteen years worth of memories from the teen he had been five thousand years ago dumped on him, including the horrid memories of the truth behind the Millennium Items.

Atem knew it would be wrong to forget, but he wanted to and he could imagine that it was killing Yugi to know what he wore around his neck. That the Puzzle was made of not only the enchanted gold they thought it had been, but had the blood and souls of almost a hundred unwilling victims mixed in.

He felt Yugi shiver in his arms as his thoughts slipped across the link. Trying to settle his mind so Yugi did not feel his own distress, he tried to read the torrent of thoughts and emotions swirling through Yugi's mind to see if there was any way he could help his light through the outpouring of pent up feelings.

Grief, guilt and a rare twist of rage crashed over him as he sifted through the miasma of feelings, and it took a great deal of effort to be able to separate those emotions and work out their causes. The grief would fade over time, there was nothing Atem could do for it. Kari had been a good friend of Yugi's and her death had hit him hard.

The guilt was complicated, stemming from several sources, but before Atem could work through them, Yugi had started calming down and returning the hug. "I'm sorry..." Atem tensed up at Yugi's soft, embarrassed murmur only to relax again as he tried to pull back.

"It's okay," Atem told his hikari, reassurance in his tone, tightening his grip for just a moment before letting Yugi move away. "I'm sorry for shouting at you."

"I think we both needed it," Yugi sighed, a tiny smile gracing his features, the first real one for a while. "I just..." Atem could tell Yugi did not want to be drawn back into the conversation they were having before Yugi's meltdown and, if he was honest, neither did Atem.

"If you don't want to wear the Puzzle, I can take it," Atem offered, knowing that Yugi could not stand to think about what had created the item he had been so reliant on for close to a decade, that he still partly believed had been the reason his life had done the one-eighty it had.

"No," Yugi shook his head, "I've carried it this long." Again he looked at the floor. "It's not right, what happened. Bakura was right to be furious but if we don't hold them they could fall into the wrong hands and..." Yugi shuddered slightly as memories of Marik danced through his mind. "I don't want..." His voice trailed off, changing what he was going to say and looked Atem in the eye as he did so, his stance shifting into one that warned the other boy that he was faced with Yugi at his most stubborn. "It's my responsibility. I'll look after it. I have to."

"All right," Atem nodded, "but if you need to..."

"I know," Yugi gave him an understanding nod, knowing Atem was just looking out for him, "now, we should get going. The tournament's probably already started without us."

"I'll see you in the finals," Atem nodded, letting Yugi change the subject. "Good luck and watch yourself." The Pharaoh had not forgotten Harry's warning about the threat that had been issued. "We'll talk later?"

"I have Akane and Lotus looking after me, I'll be fine. You're the one that has to be careful," Yugi nodded. He had not forgotten either, and was much more worried about Atem and his friends than his own safety.

"Aren't I always?" Atem teased, rousing a light chuckle and a roll of Yugi's eyes. "Come on," he said, offering his hand. Yugi squeezed it tightly for a moment. "If we don't go now, we won't get our prize cards in time."

"Ready when you are."

* * *

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was normally devoid of students during the summer holidays, a bastion of peace and quiet. The halls were empty, the house elves underworked and the teaching staff, what little remained once the teaching year was over rather than going on holiday, all free to work on their own projects.

Instead there were people staying in the dormitories, split up by their children's school houses, too frightened to return to homes that had been invaded by the darkness of Shadowmorn, all of them relying on Hogwarts's legend of being the 'safest place in Britain.'

Which was why Professor Dumbledore was spending what would normally be a quiet meal in his office sat at the staff table along with McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout and Hagrid while watching parents and children try to interact. It was interesting to see how the friendships and rivalries of the parents had survived past childhood, through a war and to the modern day. Long after they thought they had grown out of such childishness, they still bickered and argued and played pranks and formed the gangs of their past.

Watching the parents made him wish briefly for the could-have-beens. It would have been good to have seen what the Marauders had turned out like, if Lily had managed to domesticate James as she had sworn to do, if Sirius had ever grown up, if Remus had ever managed to find someone despite his 'furry little problem.' Still, there was not much point to dwelling on the past that never was. One could not change what had happened without a Time-Turner, and there were none of those in existence that could turn back years rather than hours.

The Slytherin table was almost empty. Dumbledore was not surprised. Those who had fled to Hogwarts from the snake's house were those who were outcasts within their own dorms. Those who had actually been sorted into that house because they fit the stereotypes of Slytherin, rather than those who had 'chosen' to be sorted there because of their familial ties to the house, or their desire to be seen as a 'Dark Wizard.'

What was a surprise, however, was to see the way that those students were not left on their own. Some of those they had fought besides during Shadowmorn had slowly made their way over to the snake's table. It had started with one little Hufflepuff soon-to-be second year and had gone on from there, though most stayed with family and he somehow doubted that the Gryffindors were ever going to admit that not all Slytherins were bad.

The Gryffindor table for the most part were ignoring the Slytherin table. They were not the greatest in number amongst those who had stayed at the school, most having either stayed to defend themselves at home or braved the dangers of returning to their lives outside. In spite of this, they were proud of the fact that Gryffindors had been the first to summon in defence of the school and among the children there was a subtle esteem that the Mutous, who were supposedly the ones responsible for saving them all, were members of their house.

The Hufflepuff table had a large gap in the adult-to-child ratio since a lot of their children had spread out amongst the other houses, some to the lonely Slytherins (who were pretending not to care that they were being ostracised), some over to the aloof Ravenclaws (who were either pretending they had known what was going on the whole time or were doing everything in their power to find out) and a few to the Gryffindor table, (where they were being regaled by details about the battle that they had probably heard several times over).

Meanwhile, the Ravenclaw table was the fullest, mostly because those at that table wanted to know the exact details of what had happened and what was going on, and believed that the Hogwarts library, one of the best magical libraries (or at least one of the biggest freely available) in Britain at that moment, had the answers they sought. Not that it had anything on Shadowmorn, nor anything that would have any sort of details about a brand of magic that had all but died out over five thousand years ago, but they felt better looking none the less.

Still it kept the house elves happy to have people around the castle. Normally they had to be lent out over the summer, as slowly but surely the house elves ran out of things to do, grew bored and started squabbling over jobs. This summer, however, it looked like there would be plenty for them to do as children fell back into the bad habits they developed over the school year and parents backslid into those same patterns.

"Professor Dumblydore?" a house elf popped in, causing Minerva to jump and scowl at the little creature as Dumbledore looked its way and realised that this was Dobby, the house elf whom Miss Granger had infected with her weird idea for wages for creatures that enjoyed their job and complained if you tried to offer them restitution. "Professor Greasy-bat has returned and wants to see you."

Wondering where Dobby had picked that up from and whether he was foolish enough to say that in front of Snape, which was unlikely considering the elf in question was still amongst the living, Dumbledore excused himself from the Great Hall and the meal. He was not that hungry anyway and it was obviously important if Snape was not willing to wait until after dinner. Normally when he returned from a meeting with Voldemort and his Death Eaters, his spy needed a stiff drink before he felt ready to report what had happened. Dumbledore could not help but wonder if the man had even forgone that.

It did not take him long to get to his office where Snape was pacing irritably. "What is it, my boy?" Dumbledore asked, trying to calm the man down before his magic escaped his grasp. Even adults could have incidents of accidental magic when emotions were running high after all and Dumbledore quite liked his office in one piece.

"I do hope you're prepared for another war," Snape hissed irritably, "because the Dark Lord's about to do something that'll bring down at least one country on our heads if not more."

"If the ICOW aren't overly concerned about what Voldemort," Dumbledore ignored the flinch, "is doing within the borders of the UK, I doubt whatever he has planned now will cause any more of an issue."

"Professor, where is Potter right now?" Snape pointed out, wanting the man to understand what the Dark Lord's plans really were.

"Japa…" Dumbledore grimaced as he took in the implications of Snape's question. "He has to be aware that attacking the boy while he's in a country that has openly given him sanctuary is a bad idea."

"I can't tell you what's going through the Dark Lord's head right now because he's changed drastically in the last few days and I didn't understand him very well before," Snape snorted. "It's almost like that blasted incident with the Shadows stole away any semblance of sanity he had remaining. A lot of the less loyal Death Eaters are beginning to consider fleeing the cause. Not that that would do anything but get them killed. The Dark Lord is more merciful to his enemies than he is to traitors."

"And his enemies receive almost none at all," Dumbledore nodded in understanding, internally frowning as he thought about every implication. The situation could be more dire than Snape knew. Japan had a much larger magical population than England did due to the lack of strict laws on magical creatures that the British Government had. While the English wizarding community was used to fighting other wizards (and even that was a small section of the populace) the Japanese magical community did not consist solely of wizards. There were animal spirits, magical creatures, demons and so-called Gods, not to mention the priests, the mikos and every other magical person within the country. They all worked together to keep a balance between the different groups and between the magicals and the muggles.

Poking one group and bringing the wrath of one group down on the heads of the English wizarding community was likely to incur the wrath of the others as they defended the balance of the treaty between the groups and protected their homeland. After all, if one country thought they could get away with attacking their territory, what would stop others from trying?

"Headmaster?" Snape asked, wondering what was going through the respected old wizard's mind since, unlike his students, he could not just read his mind and find out.

"Nothing to concern you," Dumbledore waved him off, "but I believe I need to have a word with the Weasleys."

* * *

"Why do I have to follow you around?" Draco grouched as he followed Harry around Kaiba Land Asia. "I could have stayed at the mansion."

"No you couldn't," Harry sighed, about as happy to have Malfoy following him as the blonde was to be stuck in a muggle-infested area with his enemy. "Seto said that you weren't allowed in his house. Not without someone watching you at all times at least and since there isn't anyone in the house he trusts, I'm stuck with you."

"But…" Wolf's snarl caused Draco to trail off. The huge, golden furred creature trusted the Slytherin Pure-Blood about as far as he could throw him. He was more than happy to escort his Duellist around the grounds of the theme park, he would have done that even if the Pharaoh had not asked him to look out for Harry while the tournament was going on. He did not see, however, why the pair of them had to put up with the brat that had been assigned to them.

"The Game Shop's too full to take anyone else in and it would look really weird if the Kings of Games started hanging around with someone whose surname is Malfoy after they were nearly killed by someone with the same name. Especially as no one has ever seen you around the Duelling Circuit before," Harry snorted, "and since I'm the newbie around here, no one knows who I'm friends with, so it makes a little more sense to have you with me and no one will ask who you are because I'm not famous enough to warrant my friends being badgered."

"We are _not_ friends," Draco snarled, pissed as hell at the implication they were.

"I could tell everyone that you're not my friend," Harry pointed out as he scanned the crowds for anyone wearing a Duel Disk so he could challenge them, "then they'd want to know why you've been following me all day and I'd have to tell them that the Kings of Games have asked me to keep an eye on you because you come from England like me, are Shadow-Touched and threatened to cause no end of trouble. I'm sure you'd get suitable accommodation then. Like in a magical prison cell."

Draco shut up. He was fully aware that right now that the name of Malfoy was worth less than mud. Between his father's attempted assassination of a very rich and influential Japanese businessman and Bakura almost succeeding at destroying the world, if he dared to inform anyone that he was a Malfoy there was a possibility he could get lynched just for association alone.

If he was honest he preferred being stuck with Potter to having to put up with Wheeler or Granger. Wheeler would have spent the entire day glowering at him while Granger would have ignored him as best as possible while focusing on helping Mokuba keep everything running smoothly by helping him keep an eye on the computer system.

Anything to do with muggle technology would have gone right over his head and he refused to look foolish in front of the two mudbloods, one of whom had been in the process of learning what she needed to be able to do when he and Harry had left the Duel Dome in the centre of the park.

At least Potter was trying to be civil, which was quite frankly a shock after Draco had challenged him to a Shadow Game when Bakura made the mistake of having him look after the Millennium Ring, and it had only been the intervention of the Pharaoh preventing Potter's soul from fading into the darkness forever. Not that Draco would admit that he had collapsed first and Bakura had had to take over from him.

The blonde Pure-Blood did not understand how he and Potter were bound to the Millennium Items. As far as he was aware they were only supposed to have one holder at any given time and yet the Ring had answered to his call and the Puzzle had responded to Potter. Bakura's theory was that Draco had apparently been 'adopted' by the Ring after the blood ritual to bind Draco's loyalty to him and that Potter had had a similar issue with the Puzzle because of how alike he and 'the Pharaoh's runt' were.

Not that it mattered any more. The Ring belonged to the Mutous now and Draco was stuck following the rules of a group of mudbloods and Blood Traitors that he could not stand because he literally had nowhere else to go.

Draco's stomach growled, causing the huge wolf at Potter's side to let out a wuffing sound a lot like a laugh and made Potter smile slightly and shake his head in amusement. "Come on Draco," Potter sighed, spotting a food stand that had a Duellist there already, "I see targets for both of us."

With that, Harry slipped into the crowd, swiftly disappearing amongst the muggles as he headed for the booth. Draco scowled as Wolf basically herded him in the direction his Duellist had gone. That was another thing he hated. Due to a lack of ability to get to his bank account, he had been given pocket money. Pocket money!

Still, for now he had to put up and shut up. There would come a time when things swung in his favour. Until then he had no choice but to deal with what life threw his way.

"Draco!" Potter's voice rose above the park's music and the ridiculously loud chatter of the muggles. "Keep up!"

* * *

"Shove over," Ginny barged Fred over as she reached for the Extendable Ear.

The children all knew that there was something major going on in the kitchen. All the adult members of the Order of the Phoenix had rushed into the building and gone straight in. Meanwhile, the children had basically been banned from entering the room. That suggested that there was something going on that the adults did not want the kids to know about. Another attack maybe, like the one on that muggle convention that had resulted in the deaths of almost five hundred non-wizards and the Order gaining backup in the form of a few Shadow-Touched members from a group who called themselves DuelDMU.

The lack of information for them was frustrating at best and bloody irritating at worst, which was why Ginny was glad for her inventive brothers and their Extendable Ear range which allowed them to listen in on what was being said even through closed doors.

"What's going on?" Ron demanded as he hovered around, getting annoyed when no one said anything. "Ginny!"

"Sorry…" Ginny handed it over to Ron who held the end to his ear just in time to hear…

"That isn't right!" the Leader of the DuelDMU lot was practically snarling. "We can't just wait here and do nothing! You saw what those 'Death Eaters' did to CardCon and you want to just let them launch another attack?"

"It isn't a matter of want, girl," Moody informed Dinah Lewis, a non-witch Shadow-Touched who was only allowed into the meetings because she was an adult and knew the most about the abilities of her friends and team-mates. "We cannot just invade another country and fight on their soil without going through the proper channels."

"Why not?" Sirius demanded, backing Dinah up. "The Death Eaters are."

"He's right," Ron did not recognise the voice of the woman speaking. He thought it might be Tonks but he was not entirely sure. "Why can't we do what this group was built to do? Defend people!"

"The Japanese Magical Culture is very different to ours." That was Dumbledore. "We cannot just walk into their country and their culture without being prepared and giving them a warning."

"Were you aware that our Duel Monsters can use the Shadows to walk across the world in an instant?" Dinah demanded. "Even if we can't fight right away we can get a message to the Pharaoh."

"I do not plan on letting them go without warning," Dumbledore informed her, "but we cannot invade Japanese territory without running the risk of shifting the delicate balance of their magical culture."

"But the Death Eaters…"

"You don't know what you're getting involved in, girl," Moody snarled at Dinah. "Let those who know about the magical world make the plans for dealing with the magical world."

"Fine!" Dinah snapped. "If you feel like bothering to let common sense dictate your actions, you know how to find me. I'm leaving."

With that, the kitchen door slammed open and the woman in question stalked out of the door, slamming it shut behind her.

"Excuse me," Ginny murmured to her brothers before darting down the stairs, hoping to catch the Duellist before she left the building. "Dinah!"

The infuriated leader of their Shadow-Touched allies turned to look at her sharply, glowering for a moment before realising it was not an adult who was calling. "Lady Weasley," the woman bowed momentarily before huffing and brushing brunette hair out of her eyes, "how can I be of help?"

Ginny frowned slightly, remembering the story of how the DuelDMU lot had not known who they could trust until their Duel Monsters had practically glomped Fred and George who had followed the older Order members. "It's just Ginny. I'm only a friend of the Court, not a member myself."

"The Duel Monsters disagree but go on," Dinah responded, curious as to what the teen wanted.

"Take us with you."

Dinah considered the young witch carefully. Before CardCon had been attacked she would have said that while there was magic involved in the game of Duel Monsters, she did not believe in the silly wand waving nonsense of most fantasy settings. Now she knew better than to discard the idea of wand magic and had a better idea of just how destructive it could be. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I overheard the conversation in the kitchen. If you're going to Japan to help Yugi and the others, we want in," Ginny informed the Whyte Wonderland Duellist, whose Whyte Rabbit was suddenly clinging to the woman's leg, having appeared out of nowhere. Ginny was fully aware that she and her brother's were not the strongest of the group but she remembered the last few lines of Luna's most recent prophecy.

' ** _Without Clan at hand and support from all,_**

**_Into Darkness this world shall fall._ ** **'**

"You know you could go by yourselves," Dinah informed her, "just get your Duel Monsters to take you."

"I know," Ginny nodded, "but our parents made us promise not to go without backup and I believe that those who want to fight should be allowed to. Plus, if you take us with you, the Court will know which side you're on without question."

"Won't just telling them that work?" Dinah asked, amused.

"Yugi'll believe you. He trusts people easily like that. The others will have a harder time of it though. They've had too many people say 'we're here to help' and then try and kill them."

Dinah considered her for a moment longer then nodded. "I'll send the Cheshire Cat to you when we're ready to go. Be prepped to leave, we won't wait more than five minutes for you."

"I understand," Ginny nodded. "Thank you."

"Don't thank us until this is over," Dinah snorted, "I don't doubt this is going to get ugly…"

* * *

"Shockingly," Mokuba spoke as his hands flew over the keyboard of the theme park's Master Computer, "I do believe everything's running smoothly." He paused and swiftly rolled his computer chair across the room to the wooden table where Hermione was working on compiling some of her Clan History notes for the books she was working on and tapped it. "Touch wood of course."

"Please don't jinx it," the bushy haired brunette asked him, "I'd like to get through this tournament without my friends getting into trouble."

"I hate to tell you this, Hermione, but I'm not actually sure that's possible," Mokuba informed the girl, well aware that she was frustrated because she wanted to be competing with the others but was not considered 'well enough' by the healers. She had argued with them that Yugi had been in just as bad a state and he was allowed to compete. The comeback that had ended the argument was that Yugi had returned from the Shadow Game with at least some life energy left and had woken up on his own. She had basically died during the Shadow Game and needed Yugi's help to find her way back to her body. "I think in the last decade or so Yugi's been to around fifty or more tournaments and something weird has happened at almost every single one."

"You're joking," Hermione sounded incredulous.

"I wish," Mokuba grouched. "You have any idea how hard it is to plan for the sort of crazy Yugi attracts?"

"Try planning a study schedule around a trio of trouble magnets," Hermione pointed out. "You at least had the advantage of knowing roughly around when the crazy was going to come. I don't have that luxury."

Mokuba just let out an amused snort and shot back across the room, turning back to his job.

A bleeping noise distracted Hermione from her task and the girl shifted herself over to the console where had been working for a while before the tournament started. "Ummm, Mokuba?" she asked as she tried to work out the source of the noise.

"What is it?" he asked as he slid his chair across the room and typed in commands faster than Hermione could comprehend. "Ah, crap."

"What?" Hermione asked.

"Well…" Mokuba looked like he was thinking of the best way to explain it before he shrugged and replied with something relatively simple. "We're in trouble."

"I thought you said this booth was impenetrable," Hermione frowned, jumping and wheeling to look at the door as something heavy pounded on it.

"It's supposed to be," Mokuba agreed. "This booth has been designed to be resistant to mundane and wizarding methods of breaking in, in order to ensure security of the park's systems. One small problem…"

With that, the door buckled and was ripped away by a huge creature not unlike a minotaur of Greek myth, except with armour and a huge axe, which presently stepped through the doorway.

"It's not Duel Monster proof."

In an instant, Hermione was on her feet and reaching for her wand, moving between Mokuba and the intruder, or rather intruders as the Battle Ox was accompanied by its duellist, a man clad in black, flowing robes and a plain, white mask. There was another man as well, dressed in the same manner, and a woman wearing a white, linen, Egyptian-style dress and a golden mask that reminded Hermione worryingly of the death masks of the Pharaohs. Behind them were another pair of white masked men.

"High Priestess Hermione," the woman said, stepping away from the group that were quite obviously her bodyguards, "step aside."

"I don't think so," Hermione shook her head, unwilling to do so even if she had not been aware that Seto would have her guts for garters if she merely allowed them to kidnap his little brother, which was what was quite obviously going to happen. "Who are you?"

"My name, girl, is Mehit, I am the consort of Anhur and future immortal Queen of the World," the woman informed her, her tone conveying her hidden smirk. She called forth a Marauding Captain from her deck. "And you're in my way."


	8. Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

Rebecca had pretty much resigned herself to not getting into the finals this time. She was falling badly behind on getting her Trophy Cards, and if she was honest, she simply was not enjoying it.

She hated to say it, but Shadowmorn had ruined the game for her, when it had turned from something she liked to something that could both end and save her life at the same time. She could not help but wonder, as she brought her laptop out of sleep mode and waited for her meal to arrive, if Yugi had ever felt the same way after one of his adventures. Like he wanted to put his deck down and never look at it again.

Still, she had something to read while she was waiting that would take her mind off everything, several days worth of something in fact. The blog had been running since before the dawn of holoduelling and she had been following it for a while. She could even rightfully boast to have had intelligent conversations with the author at conventions and tournaments.

However, the newest post on the official, web-based news resource, _Digital Duellist_ , was not what she wanted to see.

**_Saturday 5th August_ **

**_So Long, Farewell, Until We Meet Again_ **

_Hi one and all and, though it breaks my heart to write it. Farewell._

_Due to the current climate towards Duellists in general and Shadow-Touched in particular and especially after the CardCon incident (see previous blogs and almost every newspaper in the UK), the police have informed me that they cannot guarantee the safety of myself or anyone else that I mention in my blogs, and that until it is safe again, I will have to close down Digital Duellist._

_This is a devastating blow to me as this blog has been my life for the last decade. When I started writing it, I never imagined it would become as popular as it has, or that I would come to rely on the friends I would make through it to help me through hard times. When things have been rough, you guys have been there for me. I don't ever think I'll forget the support you lot offered when university was rough or when I lost members of the family and I certainly won't forget where the laptop I'm writing this farewell came from. I never expected you guys to cobble together the money for a top range laptop for me after my last one blew up in spectacular fashion._

_I know it's going to be upsetting for you lot too. A lot of people on here share duelling tips, get new info, find out all the best combos and such like, as well as maintain digital friendships through this site and it won't be gone completely. There just won't be any new updates until its safe again._

_I do plan on coming back. Digital Duellist is too big a part of my life for me to abandon it completely. I just hope that by the time I can, you guys won't have forgotten about me._

_I guess all I have to say then is goodbye and hopefully see you soon._

_Danielle Mavis Grey, aka DMG_

_Posted by DMG at 13:41_

_237 Comments_

It took her a moment to register what she was reading beyond, 'site is closing,' then, with a concerned but confused frame of mind, she swiftly read through the previous few posts, realising with horror what had happened.

'DMG,' had been grouching about her inability to afford plane tickets to the Kaiba Land Asia tournament for a while. Having recently been made redundant, her funds had been seriously curtailed. This, however, meant that she had decided to go to CardCon in Leicester, England, instead.

Rebecca had been looking forward to DMG's coverage. The girl was never dull and she had promised photos and videos of everything new, intriguing or downright weird she might find during the week-long convention.

It looked like she had too, Shadowmorn notwithstanding. She introduced Maddie as her co-writer and Deck Leader. Maddie was the Dark Magician Girl whose card had been created especially for her years ago by Maximillian Pegasus, since he knew she was a fan of the archetype and wanted the publicity for the newest booster pack at the time. Clothed in Celtic greens and golds, the one-of-a-kind sorceress had posted a couple of times during the week, mostly to answer questions fielded her way and fill in for DMG when she had been too busy to post herself (Rebecca was reading that as too drunk, considering Maddie had mentioned people kept buying her Duellist drinks) but most of the blogs had been of a recovering convention after the nightmare of Shadowmorn.

Until Friday.

At midday yesterday, everything had gone horribly wrong. There had been an attack on the convention, men in skull-like, alabaster masks and flowing black, well, apparently DMG had said dresses and Maddie had corrected her to robes. They had relentlessly, and seemingly without distinction, persecuted anyone and everyone who was present.

On the blog itself, there was not much from during the attack. One entry referenced using Duel Monsters to relay messages between groups, but nothing else. However, almost directly afterwards, Maddie and DMG had posted a message using the latter's phone informing the world that there were hundreds dead and many more injured due to the disaster unfolding all around them. The posts had kept coming after that, passing on messages of survival and hope, trying to keep everyone's spirits up.

It was the images posted in the very first entry following the attack that made Rebecca feel frightened and angry the most.

The ones who had attacked CardCon were Death Eaters.

Now she understood why the police had forced DMG to shut down her blog. It had been because of the safety issues, true, but that had not been the only reason. Most pure-blood wizards had about as much clue about the muggle internet as she had about Wizard history that did not involve the bloody goblin wars of England. Unless they were guided to Digital Duellist, they could never have found it.

No, she was certain that beneath all the spinning bluster and red tape, the real reason DMG had been forced to temporarily give up writing was because she was revealing the truth about magic, the wizards and Voldemort.

Yugi, Yami and Harry needed to know.

* * *

" _How's everyone doing?"_ Yugi asked Boh as he settled at a table in the, _'Mystik Wok Café,'_ to wait for his order, double-checking his five Trophy Cards before finally slumping against the wall to watch the world go by through a nearby window.

' _Harry's on his sixth Duel,'_ Boh warned his Duellist, half-worried that this necessary break would cost Yugi his place in the finals. _'The Pharaoh's still dealing with his fan base.'_ That meant that either Atem had his six Trophy Cards and was trying to make his way over towards them, without much luck, or he had not managed to get more than the four he possessed the last time Yugi had spoken with him. _'Joey's on five, Seto's already signed up for the finals.'_ 'Unsurprisingly,' was the unspoken addition, _'Mai's on four and Rebecca's on two.'_

Yugi nodded a little, sending gratitude down the link to his partner monster. Now was quite possibly a bad time to take a break, but he needed it. After his little stunt in the memory world it was a miracle he had lasted this long without stopping.

A lot of his ability to do so was the fact Serenity had, after checking with her mentor, made sure to provide the magical equivalent of _Lucozade_ , along with a lot of completely mundane sugary confections that were keeping his energy levels afloat.

It was a good thing she had, too. He was burning through his physical and magical reserves at a rate higher than normal. Serenity's diagnosis was that bringing Atem back during the Shadow Game had grossly overstrained him, and as such he was having trouble processing the magic and Ba that had been restored _via_ potions and treats.

"How are you feeling?" the healer-in-training asked as she settled in the seat opposite him. Their two bodyguards were settling at the next table over so they could simultaneously keep watch and allow the pair some privacy.

"Honestly?" Yugi asked with a small, weary smile. "Like I could do with going back to sleep for a week or so."

"Well you could drop out," Serenity pointed out. "You're not really fit to be competing."

"I need to compete," Yugi had the grace to give her a sheepish look as he shook his head. "Seto needs the press and I kind of owe Yami a rematch."

"You can duel against Yami any time," Serenity pointed out. "It's not like you don't see each other all the time."

"No but…" Yugi trailed off. He did not really want to explain to Serenity that he had been throwing duels for the past few years, and he certainly did not want to admit to the blazing row that had occurred because of it. He knew how nervous most people got when he and Yami were not getting on, mostly because if something was going to go drastically wrong, it was when they were not seeing eye-to-eye.

"At least promise me you'll tell me when you're feeling dizzy again," Serenity sighed, fully aware of the difficulty of her assignment to make sure Mutou Yugi-san did not keel over and die. She did not think he would, but she knew him well enough to know that it was quite possible for him to put himself back in a coma if he had to push himself too far.

"I promise," Yugi nodded, causing the apprentice to relax. A promise from Yugi was as good as a guarantee. The young man never broke his word, no matter how much trouble it got him in. "I…" Yugi's gaze turned sharp for a moment and he glanced around the café, then for some unknown reason he seemed to sink in on himself. Serenity blinked and looked around, realising too late that at least one of the other patrons was a journalist who was hastily making notes.

"Yugi?" she asked, perplexed. Yugi did not normally shy away from the cameras. It was something he had to get over since Duellist Kingdom.

"Your brother's going to kill me," Yugi informed her with a dour squeak.

"Why?" Serenity asked, only for the realisation to hit her a moment later. The, 'Pharaoh of the Shadows,' taking the time out of a tournament to sit at a table in a café with a girl, with his bodyguards providing cover at a distance? Yugi was right. Joey was going to kill him. "I'll talk to him."

"Please." Yugi nodded, remembering Joey's reaction to the Skeeter article about the Yule Ball, "and thank…" A panicked Millennium Witch popped up out of nowhere and dashed over to Yugi's side, causing the Heir to the Shadowed Throne to shoot to his feet, knocking over his chair as he did so. "Aylth! What's wrong?"

The Millennium Witch bowed to the young man, debasing herself at his feet. "My Pharaoh, I'm sorry…"

"Get up, Aylth, and explain yourself," Yugi told her sharply, uncomfortable with anyone calling him Pharaoh while Yami was still around and able to fill that role. "What's happened? Why aren't you with Hermione?"

"I couldn't protect her," Aylth's guilt ridden tone caused fear and panic to rise in Yugi, and the resultant surge down their psychic link caused Atem and Harry to pay attention instantly.

"What do you mean?" Yugi asked, trying to suppress the fear for his friend as he pressed for details, well aware of the fact his bodyguards were about ready to call for backup and his partners would know the information the moment he had it.

"A group of people broke into the computer booth where she and Mokuba were. A woman calling herself Menhit and her bodyguards. Hermione called me to battle but I couldn't fight all of them and shield Hermione and Mokuba at the same time…"

"They got them," Yugi understood without her having to explain further. "Any idea where they've taken them?"

"I'm sorry, my King," Aylth shook her head, "but Hermione's unconscious and until she calls me, I cannot reach her."

In the back of his mind, Atem was cursing up a storm and Harry was about ready to drop out of his duel to go find her. Yugi sent a mental message for the pair of them to wait and turned his attention back to the Millennium Witch in front of him.

"Aylth, if Seto hasn't been informed, tell him first then alert every Duel Monster in the park, even ones that don't belong to the Clan, get them to keep their eyes out. I'll start looking for her. I have an idea that might help."

The Light Spellcaster nodded and vanished.

"I take it you'll need your order to take away, sir?" asked the woman employee who had just arrived to one side of the table.

"I don't really have time to wait for it," Yugi looked apologetic. "Sorr…"

"I'll wait for it," Serenity spoke up, "and catch up with you." She could not let Yugi go without eating and she honestly could not help but be amused by the waitress who, unlike most of the patrons, did not seem confused or upset by events.

"Thanks, Serenity," Yugi hugged her, then blushed bright red and darted out the door with Lotus and Akane in tow.

"You know, I think he has a crush on you," the waitress informed Serenity, then left her behind to right her chair and hope that she could catch up with Yugi before he got himself into too much trouble.

* * *

"Thank the gods for stupid bad guys," Mokuba chuckled as he finally managed to pick the lock on his handcuffs and started on the bonds around his ankles; to be fair to his kidnappers, they were not complete morons. They at least had the brainpower to take away his 'phone, deck and wand, preventing him from contacting anyone or using any magic. He had no doubt they had done the same to Hermione.

What they had not done was find his lock-picks.

It had taken him a long time and a lot of bribery to get the lessons on lock-picking from Bakura. It was worth it, though; he was sick and tired of being bait for his older brother. At least with what he had learnt, he could escape easily enough if he needed to. The trick after that point was always getting a hold of his 'phone so he could call Seto.

Of course, normally he was on his own, even if Yugi's friends had been grabbed at the same time (because people still had yet to learn that the second fastest way to earn yourself an arse-kicking at the hands of Yugi and Yami was to kidnap their friends) they were generally split up before too long. Today, he had an extra person to worry about.

"I'll have you free in a sec," Mokuba promised Hermione as he finally unhitched his legs and scrambled over to her side, focusing on her wrists first since he was horribly aware of how much your shoulders could hurt if your arms had been trapped behind your back for any length of time.

"Where are we?" Hermione asked in a whisper, not wanting the sound to carry through the door.

"The labyrinth," Mokuba explained as he worked, almost insulted that Hermione's cuffs appeared to have green glowing runes engraved in them, while his had been plain metal. "It's not open to the public yet 'cause we're having coding issues with the walls. They change every night you see but they're supposed to always provide an exit."

"And they don't?"

"That and there's something wrong with the timing system. Got it," he crowed quietly as Hermione's wrists were freed. "It changes whenever it feels like at the moment, so we turned the power off to this section and closed it off. I'm guessing these guys either felt like taking the risk or just like having a seriously difficult to get to base."

"So you're telling me that without our wands, decks or 'phones, we're stuck wandering an ever-changing maze?" Hermione asked with a grimace as she rubbed her sore wrists. "And you designed it to be that way?"

"On the plus side, if we get that far we'll be past the bad guys," Mokuba offered. It was a small ray of light in an otherwise bad situation.

"That's true," Hermione allowed. She took a deep breath, feeling as if something heavy had been lifted off of her and she could breathe properly for the first time in a long while. She got to her feet and edged towards the door.

"You okay?" Mokuba asked.

"Yeah, I just..." she looked a little confused as she glanced at the glowing handcuffs, as if not sure how to explain it, "it doesn't matter." Hermione shrugged. "I feel better now so it's fine. Let's get out of..."

Hermione squeaked and leapt back as the door slammed open and four rather large, masked men stalked into the room. Narrowly avoiding recapture, the pair of them darted around the thugs and out of the door. They made it halfway down the corridor before Mokuba's ankles were dragged out from under him, lassoed by a flying chain. He hit the floor with a yelp.

"Mokuba!" Hermione yelped, wheeling around, only to come face to face with an Amazoness Fighter that seized the collar of her top and hoisted her roughly off her feet.

"Naughty, naughty," echoed the voice of the woman from before, Menhit, seconds before she stepped out of the darkness. "After we've shown you such hospitality too..."

Refusing to resort to such clichéd lines as, 'you'll never get away with this,' Hermione instead settled for, "What do you want with us?"

"You, my dear," said Menhit, "are just a bonus. A little leverage that'll make attaining our ends all the more easy. He's the one we're really after." She gestured to Mokuba who was trying to free himself from the bindings wrapped about him by the Amazoness Chain Master. "He's the one who can program the park single-handed after all."

"I'd never help you!" Mokuba snarled. Bowing to their wishes would mean betraying his brother and endangering the lives of the park's patrons.

As Mokuba spoke, Hermione's eyes widened. Something was moving along the wall, something that looked almost human and yet one with the darkness surrounding them was heading for the younger Kaiba brother. "Moku..."

Hermione let out a pained cry as the Amazoness Fighter slammed her against the wall, her head ricocheting against the faux stone hard enough for her to see stars, and held her there. Mokuba called out her name, struggling harder against his bonds.

"Now you see, little Kaiba, you're more than enough leverage for us. We could probably get your brother to hand his company to us on a silver platter if we asked just because we have you. Not to mention if he found out you were trapped down here, he'd come of his own accord," Menhit sounded smug, "however having her here as well will be a boon to our work."

With that, the shadowy figure detached itself from the wall. All the captive pair could see of it were roiling shadows and two glowing eyes. They could practically taste the darkness and shadows radiating from it, it was so potent.

"Surrender now, and we can do this with much less call for unpleasantness," Menhit smirked, "at least for her, I mean." She pointed to Hermione, and then to the shadowy figure. "He, in the meantime, needs a body for a while, and you have the information we need. Let him in and we won't harm your friend, fight us and well..."

Hermione let out a breath that was somewhere between an agonised cry and a winded gasp as the Amazoness Warrior punched her in the stomach with a sickening noise.

"Your choice, little Kaiba."

* * *

' _Ra accursed Setspawn!'_ Atem thought bitterly as he broke away from the throng of female fans that had been following him since the first of them had gotten over their fear of him. Bolting in the direction his hikari had gone, the six Trophy Cards in his pocket meant little if something huge was about to unfold.

There had been no warning. That their villains announced themselves beforehand and gave away their plans _via_ monologue was, by this point, the rule rather than the exception. That there had been no signs or portents before someone spirited away Mokuba and Hermione suggested that either their enemies were getting smarter or Seto was up to his neck in something and not told them.

 _`You all right, Ya…Atem?`_ Harry asked, correcting himself once again. He simply could not get used to calling his friend by his ancient name, not that the Pharaoh in question seemed to mind.

' _You can call me Yami,'_ the Pharaoh sent back with a sigh, then realised he was skirting around the issue. _'I'm fine.'_

 _`I know you better than that by now,'_ Harry prodded. The Pharaoh chuckled under his breath, earning himself a few odd looks from those around him. It was good, in his opinion at least, that Harry was finally comfortable enough with his link to the two Mutous to call them on their attempts at placating others. _`Something's up. What is it? Besides the obvious.`_

Atem could sense Yugi's interest hovering on the conversation as the hikari tried to pay attention to it and look for clues as to what had happened to their friends. He did not, however, want to have this conversation right now. Not in full anyway, so he settled for, _'I'm just fed up. That's all.'_

" _It'll be all right,"_ Yugi sent, always the bright spark in the conversation, the little beacon of hope that helped the other two pull themselves out of a slump, _"it always is."_ Neither of the other two dared bring up the conversation from the previous morning, neither of them wanted to slip back into such low moods again. _"Excuse me, phone's ringing…"_

Atem could sense Harry's amusement as Yugi dropped his seat at the psychic conference to take a call on his mobile 'phone, but before he could call him on it, another voice in his head distracted him.

' _Pharaoh!'_ Yami paused, not recognising this new speaker. Glancing around, he soon spotted an Eagle Eye preening itself on top of a lamppost. The bird was almost completely black, with a golden helmet, golden-yellow tail feathers and blue beak, and it was gazing at him intently. _'You are the Dark Pharaoh? Not the Light one?'_

Atem nodded carefully, bracing his arm so the bird could land on it without too much issue, and not really wanting to be seen shouting up to a bird that did not appear to be replying. It helped that he could rely on his memories of the falconry he had participated in with his older brothers back in Egypt for the correct movements.

The Eagle Eye radiated amusement for a moment, then took off from its perch, swooping down and alighting on the Pharaoh's arm, settling itself down before it spoke further.

' _I received the message from the High Priestess's Deck Leader,'_ the Winged-Beast informed him. Atem scowled, wondering when it had been decided by the creatures that Hermione was a priestess of Yugi's court and when, in fact, they had ever announced that Yugi even had a court. So far as his hikari was concerned, the whole, 'court,' issue was a running joke. _'I've seen the men she described wandering around the park.'_

That was good news, or at least could be. Atem was wary of new, so-called friends appearing out of nowhere even if they supposedly came baring news that could help. "How many?" he asked. "Where?"

The Winged-Beast preened slightly at Atem's words, having half-expected to be dismissed instantly. _'Several,'_ the bird informed him, _'mostly looking for something or someone in Umiworld. You know, the water ride area?'_

The Pharaoh nodded slightly, frowning as he did so. _'Yugi?'_

Yugi did not respond at first, probably asking whoever was on the other line to hold, then, _"Atem? Kind of important…"_

' _I know, but where are you right now?'_ Atem could sense Harry's sudden, unwavering attention focused on them and knew that he had gotten what Atem was worried about.

" _The Umiworld section with Lotus and Akane,"_ Yugi replied, _"Why?"_

' _Damn it,'_ Atem snarled, _'I'm on my way…'_

* * *

"Fine. You have the…? Yes, I'll still be here. Bye," the sheer heavy-handedness with which Seto slammed his 'phone shut was enough to emit a loud crunching noise. Seto grimaced as he checked the device, only to find he had damaged the screen. He cursed himself, realised it was a bad idea to take his frustration out on the one secure way Mokuba had of contacting him.

Not that it mattered. He already knew that Mokuba had no 'phone on him. The kidnappers had already made that abundantly clear when they had had the audacity to ring him with their demands.

It was not just Hermione and the younger Kaiba that were hostages here. The entire park was at risk thanks to the schemes of the intruders. He had already survived one virtual scuffle with them, where they had used Mokuba's codes to lock down some of the rides and cause them to freak out. Luckily he had been able to override them, but more trouble was threatened if he did not hand over the equivalent of three million dollars from his _personal_ bank account.

Seto could pay that. Mere cash was not the issue. The issue was that they, the ones calling themselves Menhit and Anhur, had had the sheer audacity to force Mokuba into aiding them. Something that had to have happened at great expense to his little brother as he knew full damn well that Mokuba would never endanger anyone else like this unless it was for a very good reason.

Seto could almost bet his precious dragons that Hermione was involved.

Not that those were their only demands. Seto turned the last one over in his mind as he swiftly went to his computer and called up a map of the competitors. It was easy to track anyone in the park thanks to the signal their Duel Disks gave off, so it took only fraction of a minute to find them.

The Clan were converging. The latest threat was serious, but it was nothing they had not handled before. During such times, they always sought each other out, which was a predictable outcome as well as a good tactic. The leaders of their little group had always worked better when they had support and the Clan ritual had only added to that. _'We stand together,'_ was their motto after all and though he hated to admit it, he did feel stronger when others from their twisted, fixed-up little family were present.

He found the electronic dot representing Yami's Disk heading for the water park, a section the Pharaoh had been avoiding since he could not swim to save his life - which if he fell into one of the pools around there, it would - while Yugi's dot was making a beeline in the opposite direction. Seto sighed softly. He had halfway hoped the pair would meet up, but that was obviously not going to happen, as the two dots passed each other unnoticed.

Unlike Yugi, who was good at the false pretences and inspiring hope, Seto had never been very good at it. He knew rather well that it generally all worked out when it came down to the Clan, but he also knew better than to think it would always be that way. There was always so much that could go wrong when one of these situations started and so many ways that a single slip-up could end more than one life.

Still, for now he had to sit back, wait and let the pieces of his plan fall into place. Mokuba needed him and if there was one thing that he could not allow under any circumstance, it was for himself to fail his little brother again. He would rescue Mokuba and grind whoever the hell had had the gall to invoke his considerable wrath into dust. Possibly subatomic particles if he could get his hands on the right equipment.

They would pay for endangering the life of his little brother. They would pay dearly.


	9. Just Keeps Getting Worse

"Yugi? I saw him that way," the speaker pointed towards a water-slide dubbed the, 'Sea Serpent.' "He's with his bodyguards."

"Thank you," Serenity bowed to the tourist, carefully balancing the lunches she had collected from the cafe and darting off in the direction that had been indicated.

It had not been too hard to find out where Yugi had gone. The general public seemed to have better tabs on the Mutous than their own friends and family. If she was honest with herself, she was starting to get worried. As she had asked around, she had heard rumours of men in white masks and rides going very wrong. She was sure something was going down and frustrated that she had absolutely no idea where the one person she was supposed to be with had disappeared to.

As she scanned the crowds it was surprisingly hard to spot hide or hair of Yugi or the men who were obviously working for the woman who had kidnapped Kaiba Mokuba or Granger-san.

The queue for the Sea Serpent was huge. Obviously no one cared that some of the rides were breaking down left, right and centre. There was, however, no red, black and blonde head in the line. Not that Serenity expected there to be. There were excited whispers though, about the fact that there was a Mutou duelling in the underwater tunnel which could be seen from the impressively scaled slide.

Serenity frowned slightly as she changed direction, heading for the tunnel that passed under the artificial lake which surrounded the water park section of Kaibaland and led to the Meadowland Picnic area, only to pull up short when someone called her name.

"Wheeler-san!"

"Oh, good. Hi, Lotus. Hi, Akane," Serenity grinned as she spotted the two bodyguards. Her moment of pleasant surprise was replaced with confusion as she realised that a certain someone was not with them. "Where's Yugi?"

"He's not with you?" Akane hissed, exasperated.

"No," the healer-in-training shook her head in reply, "I did hear that there's a Mutou duelling near here. It might be him." Her tone was reassuring but her body language was twitchy with aggravation.

"That's what we're hoping, too," Lotus grumbled. "We lost him in the crowds when the Aqua broke down with people on it."

"The Aqua?" Serenity stared at the kitsune in horror. "Isn't that the rollercoaster that actually goes underwater?"

Akane nodded. "Luckily it stopped just before the plunge, but you can imagine the chaos."

Serenity let out a soft hiss. She could imagine it easily. "Was anyone hurt? Do they need a...?"

"Its fine, Wheeler-san," Akane interrupted with a shake of her head, "Kaiba Seto had the park doctors out here relatively sharpish and the ride was going again within minutes. No one was hurt. Someone's feet got very wet, but no one was hurt."

"That's a relief," Serenity's feelings on the matter were plain to see. She would have stopped to look after the injured. It was her normal day job, after all, however today she had an assigned patient and she had no idea where he was. A fact that was driving her a little crazy. She was not the only one going nuts. Lotus was pacing irritably and Akane's fur would have been up on end if she had been in her natural form.

"Come on, Wheeler-san," Lotus ushered Serenity towards the tunnel, "Kaiba Seto can worry about his amusement park falling apart without our help. We've got to try and find Yugi."

* * *

Atem was not amused as he stared down his opponent in the underwater passageway.

There were several tunnels that led into the Umiworld, where all of Kaiba's water-based rides were, but Atem had been avoiding them for the majority of the day. He could not swim and to be quite frank the idea of being underneath a lake made him considerably nervous.

Still, the moment he had realised that the bad guys were, once again, after the light half of his soul, he had dashed down the nearest open tunnel, aiming to get to the Umiworld section before something untoward could happen to his light.

Unfortunately, Menhit's masked mooks had other ideas.

Apparently if he wanted to get to the Umiworld he would have to duel against some of Menhit's Shabti. Why they were calling themselves shabti was beyond him. Maybe they wanted to serve her in the afterlife? He did not know but he was tempted to say, "Screw it," and just blast his way through, but the tunnel was far under the surface and he would never make it to the end in time if he caused part of it to collapse.

The first duellist he fought had not been much of the challenge. If anything, Atem would have beaten him much quicker if he had not been stalling the entire duel. It was a little irritating to find that for all their subtlety when it came to acting without warning them first, they were still playing it by the typical bad guy standards.

He had two problems with that. One was that they were stalling him while his hikari was in danger. The other was that he had basically predicted that they would pull something like this, though he had thought that it would involve causing the monorail over the lake ringing the Umiworld to stop, hence why he had taken the tunnel.

If he was honest, even with the blasted Duellists he had to fight to get through to the Umiworld, he would still much rather be in a nice, secure area like this, than trust his life to a cage that rode a thin wire over an extremely deep body of water.

However, that did not mean he wanted to have to deal with the Shabti, especially slow ones that did not seem to know a Spell Card from a Spellcaster. This one, the second of his opponents, was making sure to intently read the cards as if he had no clue as to what they were or how to use them. The worst part was probably that, as a stalling tactic, it was horrendously effective, but there remained one problem, at least for the opponent.

"You do realise that your Duel Disk will time out if you take more than five minutes to make your move, right?" Atem could not help but ask. A victory by time-out was still a victory, but Atem's pride would not allow him to see it that way. He wanted to defeat his opponents, not sit back and let them defeat themselves.

The man did not reply and Atem could not see what was going on behind the mask. The lack of a poker face added another layer to the Pharaoh's ire, because it rendered the other Duellist completely unreadable, if you could call just playing a card in face-down defence mode for several turns Duelling.

"How many more of you lot are there?" Atem grouched as the mysterious nuisance finally made his move, once again setting a card face-down in his back row, and another card in defence mode.

"Three," said the man quietly, his voice pretty much identical to that of the first Shabti Atem fought, "it's your move by the-"

He was cut off by the sounds of a fight erupting from further up the tunnel, and Atem chuckled.

"I think you'll find it's two," the King of Games smirked a bit evilly, "and it's about-"

" _Yami!"_ the Pharaoh paused mid-sentence as the link to Yugi, which had been quiet to the point that Atem suspected his hikari was purposely blocking him, suddenly erupted with fear, panic and concern.

 _'Yugi? What's happened? Where are you?'_ demanded Atem.

" _Never mind me,"_ Yugi's urgency sent chills up Yami's spine. Yugi knew something Yami did not and it could not be good, if the panic in his tone was any indication. _"Where are_ you _?"_

' _The underwater tunnels,'_ Atem answered, but frowned when he sensed Yugi freeze up, _'why?'_

" _Yami..."_ Yugi trailed off, and the worry already coursing through the Pharaoh began to intensify, _"promise me you won't kill Seto."_

' _What did he do?'_ Yami waited, but a verbal answer never came, but he did not need one, for suddenly he felt something slice across the link, throwing up a wall between Yugi and his link partners that could not block Atem's bond to the other half of his soul, but cut off any access to his hikari's magic and caused Harry to start cussing in spectacular fashion, reminding Atem of how different the links between them and Harry truly were. _'Yugi!'_

Atem felt Yugi's mind waver for a moment and then rapidly fade out as his hikari lost consciousness. The Pharaoh's hands balled into fists as he realised that he recognised the weaving of the spell that was sealing Yugi's magic away and screwing with their mental bonds. There was no way he could forget it. He had been under it only once before, back during his days in Egypt when he was a foolish young prince. He and his sister had been reckless with their magic, which had surpassed that of their teachers, and his little sister died because of it. In order to prevent a repeat of the tragedy, his magic had been sealed until he could learn respect for that which he wielded.

That their enemy had gotten their hands on a spell that was designed in Egypt millennia ago to allow the magically handicapped amongst the guards to handle criminal spellcasters and rouge sorcerers was disconcerting, and spoke of something going on that was far more dangerous than Atem had suspected.

That was not the worst of it, though.

He had to get to Yugi. Quickly. There was no longer any way he could afford to dawdle. The spell was normally embedded in restraints that were placed on the sorcerer it was being used against. It fed off the captive's Ba and magic in order to power itself, draining only a little from their reserves, nothing that the victim could not recover on their own. Never enough to kill them, just enough to disorientate and sedate them.

But Yugi was sick, his reserves were not regenerating properly and not only that, there was more than one layer of the spell holding Yugi's powers beyond the hikari's reach. Each layer would drain just as much as the first.

Yugi would die by the end of the day if Atem did not find him and set him free.

Right there and then, Atem swore to himself that even if he had to tear this entire park apart, he would find Yugi before it was too late and Seto **_was_** going to lend help, even if it had to be forced out of him.

First though, he had to get past the bloody shabti and out of this Ra-accursed tunnel.

"All right," Atem's tone was low, vicious and very, very dangerous, "my turn."

* * *

Hermione was pissed off.

She was **_not_** the damsel-in-distress type. She had **_not_** accepted death at the hands of Akhenaden and she was **_not_** going to be the reason that Yugi surrendered to the latest prat who wanted to steal his soul. It was bad enough that she was the reason Mokuba had surrendered to their adversaries. There were several damaged walls from where she had vented her anger on the scenery. Even without her focuses, she could still do a surprising amount of damage if she was pushed enough. Obviously, it was still possible to have bouts of accidental magic at fifteen.

She could not do anything to help Mokuba right now. She was not strong enough to fight the spirit possessing the boy and without her deck and wand she could not defend herself properly from his attacks. She needed backup if she wanted to free the younger Kaiba brother. She could, however, get herself out of here and warn the others, except to do that she needed to find her way out of this bloody maze and that was not going to be easy. Menhit's ancient friend had possessed one of the few people who did not need backup to reprogram everything in the park, which meant he had control over how the labyrinth around her shifted and changed. She could have been walking around in circles for the last few hours and never known it.

She let out a frustrated snarl as she turned a corner and discovered the pen she had lost when she had been dumped in the labyrinth lying on the floor. Well, now she had confirmation. The exit had vanished so going back to find her deck and her wand was not an option. She was left wondering if they were doing this purely to aggravate her further.

The more logical part of her mind, the part not overexposed to Joey, reminded her that if she did not know where the hell she was, then neither would her friends, so even if she wanted to wait to be rescued, it would be a long time coming.

Stalking around the maze was not going to help. She was not going to go anywhere if they did not want her to, and quite obviously they did not want her to. She had to find another solution. There was no way that Seto and Mokuba would not have built back doors into the place to allow not only easy access for their employees, but to let them help people who had been lost for hours more easily.

The question was where they were and how she could get into them. The logical suggestion was that the access to the staff walkways would be tunnels under the maze. Going underground an, 'underground,' maze sounded less than fun but if she was going to get the hell out of here, she would more than happily escape that way.

She carefully checked every inch of the floor, looking for the concealed exits that she just knew had to be there. The Kaiba brothers would not have made it easy. After all, this was a game and using the staff exits was cheating, something that the Clan as a whole disapproved of. Hermione herself had been informed of the cardinal rule of, 'don't cheat,' a long time ago, but this was not a Shadow Game and it was not cheating to use the available shortcuts if the game itself was broken.

" ** _Ah-ha!"_** Hermione crowed as she found the floor tile she was looking for. The seam was just a little larger around the edges and it was a slightly different colour, not that it was easy to see in the dim light provided by the labyrinth's lighting system. Fake flames looked very pretty, but they were not very bright, something that only added to the place's creepy tone.

Next trick, wedging the exit open far enough she could slip inside before the bad guys realised what she was up to and stopped her.

* * *

Something was bothering Ryou and he had a horrible feeling that he knew what it was.

When the others had gone to Kaiba's tournament, he had opted to stay behind. There were many reasons for that. Between his lack of interest in the game of Duel Monsters and the fact he and his recently deceased other self had been practically identical, along with the fact he did not entirely trust himself meant that it was safer for him to stay here.

He was busy, anyway. The televised duels would not start until tomorrow morning, so other than those sad few who were following every duel as it happened on the Kaiba Corp website, the shop was beginning to get back some of its regulars. In fact the mini-tournament that the store had been supposed to be running had actually attracted quite a crowd - there were not as many people as in previous summers, and some of them had only come to see if Yugi or any of his friends were at the shop, but there had been more customers. Stocking the new boosters definitely helped. No matter how frightened they were, people always wanted the newest stuff. It was almost a rule of human nature.

He recognised the feeling that was bothering him. It was his gut instinct telling him to get the hell out. One valuable lesson the Thief King had taught him over the years was to listen to it. The hikaris tended towards precognition, so if something told Ryou to run, generally it was correct. It did not help that Golden, a fully qualified Seer, had vanished from the shop sometime this morning and had yet to return.

For once he was not going to heed it, though. He had hidden himself away when Bakura had been at his worst, just hoping to mitigate the damage and stayed away from the danger when he could have helped his friends at Hogwarts, but he did not want to just abandon them now. That did not mean he could not clear the shop of anyone that could not defend themselves.

He did not even know what the problem was, because both thankfully and problematically, his was more a skill for sensing incoming danger, rather than Yugi's nightmare-visions. It meant he never had a full idea of what was to come except for a vague sensation of, 'trouble,' and the bigger that trouble was, the bigger the urge was to run like mad.

Every fibre and nerve-ending in him was screaming to get the hell out. Now.

Leaving Yugi's mother in charge of the counter, he shot out to the back room where Solomon was making a judgement call on a move that one of the semi-finalists had made. Gesturing for the elderly gamer to come to one side, he was grateful when Solomon obliged him rather than call him over towards the table.

"Bakura-san?" Solomon asked, concerned when he saw the look on Ryou's face.

"This is going to sound strange, but we need to get everyone out of the shop," said Ryou steadily, all the time wondering how precisely to explain himself to the elderly gamer.

Solomon considered him carefully for a moment. "Can it wait forty five minutes?"

"I don't know," Ryou admitted. It was probable that he was being ridiculous, jumping at shadows because he was trying to adjust to whatever it was his darker self had done to him just before he had left for Japan that meant he was not, shockingly, going crazy. He did not recognise how he felt, but that gaping hole Yugi described when Yami had been petrified did not seem to be there, in spite of his alter ego's departure.

"After this round," Solomon promised, frowning slightly. "I know the likely finalists, they won't object to coming back tomorrow if I give them an extra booster pack each."

"You believe me?" Ryou was a little surprised, his own mother had not believed him when he told her and Amane not to go that day and, and yet Solomon was willing to believe him even without a proper explanation.

"Later on, I'll explain a few things. Right now I need you to start closing up the shop, while I finish here," Solomon informed him. "Tell the customers we have a problem with the till and that it can't be fixed until tomorrow morning. We weren't opening till midday anyway."

"Yes, Mutou-Sensei," Ryou nodded, relieved that someone was listening to him, and headed out to begin shooing away customers.

* * *

His mind hazy, his body refusing his orders and his powers far beyond his grip, Yugi had no choice but to allow his captors to carry him deep into the labyrinth, not that he would have struggled even if he had been able to. He had surrendered to the shabti that had approached him. There was no other choice.

Well, there was, but Yugi could never have taken it. His options had been to hand himself over willingly, or run, forever knowing that his unwillingness to sacrifice himself had caused the deaths of Hermione, Serenity and Yami.

Now at least he knew that Hermione would be unharmed, Serenity would be left with Akane and Lotus and the flood gates on the tunnels would not be opened, so Yami and everyone else down there with him would not drown.

He knew his friends would come for him. One thing he could always depend on was that his friends would never abandon him when he was in trouble, but he could feel his life draining away. The pins and needles that had started with his wrists, ankles and neck, where the shackles and collar bit into his skin, was spreading throughout his body rapidly. His dulled senses could still feel the magic pulsing, eating away at his energy, each pulse spreading the prickling further.

They would come, but Yugi did not know if they would come in time. He could not. If they did not, he could at least die knowing he had saved them.

His faceless captors, whose arms did not feel like flesh and bone, but closer to stone, carried him through a door and literally dropped him at the feet of their leader. Yugi let out a pained cry as his body hit the floor hard. His head struck the faux stone surface as it did so, worsening his already nauseating feeling of inertia.

" _Hey, Boh?"_ Yugi sent out, or at least tried, unable to hear anyone he was linked to. He could still pick up Yami's distinct aura of darkness supporting him, he was unsure whether anyone could hear him in return. _"Tell Serenity I feel dizzy..."_

"I know you're not asleep, Yugi," the leader spoke, causing confusion to course through Yugi as he opened his eyes slowly, "look at me."

"Mo...Mokuba?" Yugi practically squeaked as he beheld the face of the one stood before him.

"Yes," the younger boy allowed, "and no."

Yugi's senses were screaming something, but he was too far gone to understand what they were telling him. "Wha...?"

"I knew that playing on your weaknesses would bring you straight to me," the younger Kaiba continued, something strange in his voice as he spoke, "and now I have you, one soul of pure light, signed, sealed and delivered."

Suddenly, it made more sense that their spells were killing his body. That was never what they wanted. They wanted his soul. "Why?" Yugi asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

"You'll see soon enough, Yugi," Mokuba turned his attention away from his hostage and back towards the screens behind him, causing the sickening heir to realise he had been brought to some kind of, 'control centre.' Possibly even a backup. "For now you'll be pleased to hear your Priestess, Hermione, has slipped out of my clutches and your girlfriend, Serenity, has been taken somewhere safe where I can't get her."

Yugi was too exhausted to protest that Serenity was not his girlfriend in any way, shape or form, but he was relieved to hear the news, regardless.

"However, something will have to be done about your brother..."

Yugi froze. "But-" he managed.

"I know I promised, through my shabti, that I'd leave him alone if you handed yourself over. But you didn't really expect me to let your brother - whom I know will want to destroy me, live - did you?"

Yugi had. No matter how often he dealt with bad guys, he still could not shift his faith that they would stick to their oaths. It had been the one thing that had kept him going during their early battles was that the magic would force them to keep their promises. He had not forgotten that not everyone had that pressure, but did not want to believe there were people who would break their word on such important matters.

"No, he's getting too close to defeating my last shabti," Mokuba sounded almost cheerful as Yugi struggled against both his bonds and the spells keeping him subdued, eyes locked on the screen Mokuba to which Mokuba gestured. It displayed Atem in the midst of his match. "So..."

His hands hesitated over the keyboard for a moment as he fought an internal battle, giving Yugi time to shift his way partially through the haze. A moment later, they were flying across the keyboard.

Yugi watched in horror as the flood gates burst wide open and water issued out in what looked momentarily like a single thick, malevolent mass. He got a quick glimpse of Atem's astonished reaction before the camera switched perspective, looking away from the Pharaoh in favour of the churning water carrying on down the tunnel. At the same instant, Atem's darkness vanished, as if someone had suddenly switched a light on and chased it from the room, leaving Yugi reeling.

Yami was gone.

Yami was...

Yugi had never felt rage like he did at that exact moment, but it cut through the fog in his brain and allowed him to push past the barriers restricting his magic. Sinking almost every last drop of his power into this one strike, Yugi strained against the suppressing spells, wanting nothing more than to stop the one who was in control of Mokuba, because it could not possibly be his friend who had just murdered Yami in cold blood.

The arcane bonds had never been meant to hold back the wrath of the living Horus himself. They folded pathetically under his assault and the Shadows climbed the walls, striking at everyone who was not Yugi or Mokuba. The new Pharaoh of the Shadows called forth a Shadow Game, both to punish the one who had killed his predecessor, and to save his friend from possession.

The shabti all across the park, which were in fact nothing more than clay statues brought to life with magic, shattered the moment the shadows and the light - working and swirling together in one burst of magic that everyone who was even remotely sensitive across the world could feel - overwhelmed the spells binding them to their creator.

In the wake of the abrupt mystical eruption, the ceiling was vaporised, and Menhit made the wise decision to flee, valuing her current life more than some, 'promise,' of immortality. The one controlling Mokuba stood his ground against the surge of uncontrolled energy which was steadily closing in on the Pharaoh and his target.

Anhur, who had just arrived, was not blessed with Menhit's foresight, nor had he been around long enough to know what was even occuring. The huge man strode across the room and went to kick the already straining King, only to be blasted away, smashing his back hard into the control console. The console started smoking, but no one was paying attention to it, too concerned about the new, untamed magic bent on destroying them all.

As quickly as it had come, the magic fled, along with the rage fuelling it as Yugi collapsed. Exhausted as he was from fighting his shackles and his previous issues, he was simply unable to maintain control over that much raw, cosmic fury.

Mokuba, stunned almost into goggle-eyed silence, stared down at the unconscious Pharaoh with awe and more than a small twinge of fear. "He wasn't supposed to be able to do that..."

* * *

"The hell was that?" Ron demanded as the feeling of impending disaster washed over him to replace the shock that racked his body seconds before.

"I... don't know..." Ginny admitted.

"I do," Ombre said, hovering in the open doorway, "and you lot should be more careful."

"Ombre?" Ron yelped, dragging her into the room and shutting the door behind her.

"What do you mean you know what that was?" Ginny demanded, shoving Ron's remaining clothes into his open school trunk.

"Of course I know what that was," The false Princess snorted, "and you would too if you thought about it. There's only one being of light and shadows in this world who's that powerful _._ "

"There's no way!" Ron protested. "That couldn't have been Yugi!"

"Believe me or not, it doesn't matter. Not if you're not ready to move," Ombre shrugged. "Other people are going to assume the same as me and go after our Clan. They will need your help."

"Come with us," Ginny offered, "we..." She trailed off as Ombre started chuckling bitterly.

"Me? I don't think so," said Ombre. "The last thing they need there is me. I have no control, I proved that before I left."

"Without Clan at hand and support from all," Ginny quoted at her, "into darkness this world will fall. You _have_ to come."

"I..."

' _The Kame Game Shop's under attack!'_ Ginny's Steel Scorpion burst into the room, interrupting Ombre with its announcement. _'Death Eaters! At the Pharaoh's ho-!'_

A Cheshire Cat appeared out of thin air and sat on Ron's head. He tried to swat it off unsuccessfully.

"The Lady Whyte requests your presence," The cat said and floated away lazily, unaware that it had interrupted an important discussion. Ron's hands continued to swipe at it, and went straight through the tricky, immaterial feline. "It's started."


	10. Defeat

The Speaker for Magical Japan stared at the red 'phone sitting on his desk. It had been a gift from the American ministry to his predecessor, though he did not know what in aid of. Some police action, most likely. Either way, it hardly mattered now.

All that mattered was that he was expecting it to ring. His bodyguard had been acting twitchy for some time now. Something was putting her on edge.

"Sakura," he murmured, "do an old man a favour and get me a pot of tea." He told the half-kitsune who led his protection detail.

"Now would not be a good time for me to leave your side, sir," she replied, turning to glance out of the office window. "Dark magic is building nearby, but I can't work out where."

"I see," he frowned. "How serious is it?"

The 'phone rang before Sakura could answer. It was at his ear before the second ring.

"Saito," he said into it.

"Speaker, this is Chief Superintendant Takehara. I've just received a tip-off that a group of gaijin terrorists are planning an attack on a small business in the growth district." The voice on the other end of the line was gruff and somewhat irritable, which fairly accurately described the head of the prefectural police department.

"Oh? Your source?" Saito asked, motioning Sakura to approach and listen.

"A reliable local source. One of your lot," Takehara replied. "Asakura's been going crazy for the last ten minutes too."

"Un," Takehara grunted an acknowledgement and hung up. Saito took a moment to rub the bridge of his nose, before rising, forwarding the red 'phone to his mobile and going to call a meeting of the Cabinet.

* * *

'Mokuba' was furious.

After all of his work to gather the right pieces to his plan, to capture and hold the Pharaoh and kill his brother without getting himself injured _and_ possess the body of one of the few people who could program the park from the base up, his plan was ruined.

His Shabti were destroyed, his base of operations blown sky high and along with it a lot of his equipment for his ritual, and the Pharaoh, whose soul he needed, was all but dead.

When Shadowmorn had struck he had taken full advantage of it, using the Shadows to rip himself free of the statue that he had been sealed in for longer than anyone could possibly care to remember. Not only that, but he had managed to save a pair of mortals and bestow a little of his power on them, causing them to owe him a life debt that he could use to get them to do what he wanted. He had not needed it after he had mentioned the possibility of immortality, not that he had planned on sharing, but having a backup plan never hurt.

Somehow, though, after all of his meticulous planning, everything had gone very wrong and it was all the blasted Pharaoh's fault, and what was worse was he could not even unleash his frustrations on the young man because the Pharaoh was unconscious.

"Unless, bloody, piece of crap!" he snarled as he paced back and forth, kicking a pile of stones that used to be a Shabti. Then he started swearing for a whole different reason.

Anhur, who had wanted to rip the Pharaoh limb from limb when he had recovered from smashing into the computer console and had been sworn into leaving him alone, watched his 'leader.' The spirit from the statue had seemed so great and all powerful when it had been saving him and his ex-girlfriend from Shadowmorn, but now, in the body of the younger Kaiba brother he did not seem so great or so powerful. Especially pacing the floor and gesticulating wildly as he ranted about plans going awry.

Suddenly, the spirit paused, seemingly taking in everything around him properly. When the spirit turned and smirked at him, it made the jock nervous. "What?" Anhur demanded, confused and wary of the sudden change in mood. "What?"

"I can't finish my plan completely," Mokuba informed him, "but there's no reason I can't start it with him," he gestured to Yugi, "and finish it with the other pure light that I know is hanging around somewhere in this bloody town."

"Then why are you smirking at me?" Anhur asked, still nervous.

"Because," a huge, shadowy form detached itself from Mokuba and leapt at Anhur, sinking into the jock. His body shook all over, like he was having a fit, as his own spirit and the invader fought for control. The struggle was not a long one, for the invader's magical and mental power, not to mention sheer bloody-mindedness, proved greater. Mokuba collapsed, and the spirit stretched his new muscles. "There is no way I want to be immortal in the body of a wimp like the Kaiba brat."

The spirit then turned on his captives. He kicked Mokuba aside, his interest exhausted now that he had the elder Kaiba's money, and continued on towards the Pharaoh's side. Leaning down and seizing what was supposedly the most powerful being on the planet by his collar and dragging him up for a closer examination.

The shackles placed on the Pharaoh were almost worthless now. When the Pharaoh's magic had exploded, it had overwhelmed the restraining spells, leaving the metal bindings as just that. Only the collar remained to suppress Yugi's powers, but it would not matter soon.

"Now-" 'Anhur' was cut off by a blast of pure white light, causing him to drop the young man he was holding and go flying into a wall. Hard.

"How dare you?" snarled the assailant, leaving the barely breathing Pharaoh to check on the younger Kaiba. "You will regret ever laying a hand on my little brother."

"You have no idea who you're dealing with, Kaiba," 'Anhur' growled as he picked himself up, "I am Neos, the High Priest of Set! Egypt trembled in fear with every breath I took! Your puny Shadow powers are no match for..."

"Shut. Up," Seto snapped as Kisara blasted Neos again.

Neos was prepared for it this time, throwing up a wall of magic that shielded him from the attack. "You think that defeating me can erase the stain of your betrayal, Kaiba?" Neos demanded. "You're the one who handed the Pharaoh to me after all."

Kaiba, however, just moved away from the wall - just in time as it turned out. The wall blew apart and Harry and Joey stalked in.

"Took you long enough," Seto informed the pair as Joey darted over to Yugi's side and Harry gave Neos a rather impressive death glare, ruby red eyes flashing and Millennium Puzzle glowing.

"I will deal with you later, Kaiba," Yami promised through Harry, before looking to Yugi. "Is he-?"

"He's alive, but barely," Joey informed him, scooping Yugi up as he did so and looking around for something. "I've got him, you deal with the jackass so we can join the others at the shop."

Neos glared at Joey, which turned to a malicious smirk as he took out a bunch of keys and waved them in the air. "Looking for-" he began, only to drop the keys as a third blast of white lightning sent him back into the wall.

"Got them," Joey smirked as Atem passed him the keys.

"It's rude to interrupt!" Neos grumbled as he picked himself out of the rubble.

"And kidnapping people is polite?" Atem asked, sounding surprisingly amused considering everything as Joey unshackled his friend. He was glad to hear Yugi suddenly gasp and start breathing much easier once the collar was off. Atem felt it as Harry jumped, surprised when the teen's bond to Yugi reignited and agreed with his friend's fury as they took in how close they had been to losing their friend.

Neos's response shocked them all. He abandoned his host and shot across the room, straight for Atem. Not that it worked, mind you, because with two souls already within Harry, it was really easy for the pair to team up and evict Neos. Instead of trying again, he slipped into the Shadows at the edge of the room.

That did not save him, because Atem proceeded to drag the whole area into the Shadows. "You're not getting away from me," declared the Pharaoh, as the magic of the game forced Neos to take a solid form, "not after everything you've done."

"I'm not afraid of you. I killed you once, I can kill you again and then I'll rip your brother's soul out and devour it, piece by piece," Neos swore in return. "I might even make you watch."

That was the wrong thing to say. Atem let loose, "I won't let you lay another hand on Yugi!" The magic swirled around him, intense and thick fit to choke. "Now, let's play."

* * *

"Welcome," Dinah offered Ron a hand up and nodded to the group that had come with the Cheshire Cat, "to the DuelDMU headquarters. At least for now."

It looked pretty normal. It was a bit bland, as a matter of fact. The white walled, sterile kitchen was nothing like the dark, slightly grubby one at the Black House, or the controlled chaos of the Burrow. It appeared to lead out into an empty hallway, which was equally white.

"I'm renting it over the summer," Dinah explained, shrugging on a jacket with the club's name and logo on the left breast, along with another name underneath that. "I've been letting the others crash on my floor since the start of CardCon."

There were voices coming from the other rooms. Furniture was being scraped along the floor with little care for noise or furnishings as people scrambled to pull their stuff together.

"How many are we?" Ombre asked, having been talked into coming by Ginny, if only to make sure that the damn prophecy did not turn sour on her friends.

"There's nine of us from DuelDMU and we've got DMG with us, making ten," Dinah explained, then paused at the look of confusion on all bar Ombre's face. "You know, the writer of Digital Duellist?"

"I know her," Ombre nodded. She had run into the girl in question at a couple of the bigger tournaments over the years. "She's coming with us?"

"They hurt hundreds of people," said a voice from the hallway. Nobody had noticed DMG entering the scene, but there she was, as real as anything, and hovering behind her silently, wary eyes on the group, was a green-clothed Dark Magician Girl. "And shut me down. Of course I'm coming."

"DMG, Maddie," Dinah nodded to the pair, "how is everyone doing?"

"Tate and Lyle are packed and relocking doors," said DMG, "Nel is helping Sweety pick up the last of her bits and bobs, Typhoon, Layer and Jackal are just finishing up the edits on Typhoon's deck and Spotter's being Spotter but he's packed and ready to go."

"Code names?" Ginny asked, confused.

Dinah shook her head. "Nicknames," she said, pointing to the word underneath the logo on her jacket. It quite clearly stated, in white embroidered text on the black background, that the one wearing it was in fact called 'Alyss.'

"Ready," chirped the voice of another girl. This one had chocolate-brown girl, with pale pink and blue highlights clipped up in such a way that they looked exactly like liquorice allsorts. The name on her jacket proclaimed her to be 'Sweetybell.' She seemed to scan the group with her leader for a moment, as if trying to work out who they were, and then, "You know, you lot should have your club jackets on. Alyss was rather insistent that we wear ours no matter how much we hate them."

"We aren't part of your club," Ron grouched, having thought they would be moving faster than this.

"Neither's DMG," Sweetybell shot back before turning to Dinah. "You didn't get them ones made?"

"They don't need one to show which side they're on," Dinah shrugged, "they're Court members."

"Court?" Sweetybell's eyes widened, then she grinned wickedly. "Have you showed them our toys yet?"

Dinah chuckled lightly, "No, not yet, we're a little busy."

"Just don't forget to tell them I do commissions," the small girl reminded her. "In the meantime I'll hurry the others up."

"Toys?" Ron asked, confused as Dinah moved across the room and picked up a piece of equipment that they had not seen before. It looked like a duel disk, but it was of a sleek white design with silver swirls and the dome had a black-and-white checkerboard pattern. As Dinah did the typical pre-duel checks, they saw that the lights that lit up were white rather than red. "Wicked."

"Sweety does commissions," Dinah explained as she swung her backpack over one shoulder and slipped her deck into place, "you pay her for the materials and work and she'll do something like..."

"Look, not that this isn't interesting, but we're on a time limit here!" Ginny snapped. "We'll talk shop afterwards. We have to move!"

"I said five minutes," Dinah scowled towards the door, "they still have thirty seconds to..."

"Ready!" cried the remaining team members suddenly piled through the door with all their equipment. One of them froze at the sight of the Court members.

"Kari?" Typhoon yelped, backing up hastily and crashing into a strange-looking young man wearing telescopic binoculars on his forehead and a custom-built camera on a strap around his neck.

Ombre got a glance at the name on the man's jacket. 'Spotter.' "No," Ombre sighed with a shake of her head, "not Kari. It's good to see you again, Lillian."

"Ombre," Lillian darted across the room and hugged her old friend's twin. "I'm so sorry!" Ombre did not know what to say. Lillian, or Typhoon to her new friends, had been Kari's friend long before she had gotten the Orb of Light, so she had known Kari for far longer. After the events of their first Summer back from Hogwarts, she and Ash had known the truth, or at least the truth as they had known it back then.

"Later, Lils," Ombre murmured, returning the hug. "Later, okay?"

"All right," Lillian agreed, pulling away, "we should go."

"All right, gang," said Dinah, looking around at everyone, watching as they summoned Duel Monsters to their side, "let's roll out."

* * *

Joey, still holding his unconscious best friend, paced irritably. They did not have time for this. The others had gone ahead, grabbing taxis and every other method of getting to the shop they could think of, but Tobias had been giving him the details of what was going on. They did not have time to wait for Atem to finish his game.

He did not know what to do. He could not just leave Yugi behind, but they needed more help than was available. Kaiba had already taken Mokuba and left, probably to escape before Atem finished his Shadow Game with the one who had sent him back to the Puzzle and Joey did not trust the CEO of Kaiba Corp to do more than help his brother, not after they had worked out that Kaiba had been the one to hand Yugi over in the first place.

Joey snarled to himself. The man who he considered his grandfather was still in danger, his friends were heading there and even Ryou was fighting and he was stuck here because some prick had chosen the most inopportune moment to attack them ever.

He felt the Shadows amassing even before he saw the hints of their movement anywhere away from the bubble enclosing the ongoing Shadow Game. Holding Yugi close, he wheeled around to face it, only to be shocked when his sister, who was clutching a large bag stepped out of the swirling pillar of darkness, accompanied by a pair of Gellenduo. "Serenity?"

"Put him down," Serenity ordered, nodding slightly.

Joey followed his sister's orders before he could even formulate his next question, lying Yugi down gently. "You're supposed to be in the safe-house," he said with evident bewilderment.

"I got my friend to bring me," Serenity waved vaguely at her Duel Monster before settling at Yugi's side and casting a diagnostic spell. She let out a sharp hiss and started pulling potions out of her bag as she continued. "The shop's under attack, you need all the help you can get. With Yami dead-"

"You know about that?" Joey yelped, shocked since no one had announced it yet.

"The moment he was back in the Puzzle the Duel Monsters all knew," Serenity replied, working quickly as she did, "and it wasn't hard to work out after his," she gestured to the young man on the ground, "explosion."

"It took him days to wake up last time," Joey shook his head, "there isn't time."

"I've mixed in some Pepper-Up Potion with this batch," Serenity offered, "it was Golden-san's suggestion. I'm hoping it'll at least keep him awake long enough to..."

She trailed off as the shadows taking up most of the room dispersed, leaving behind a rather tired and angry-looking Harry. The ruby colour drained from his emerald green eyes just as quickly, and he darted over to Yugi's side. The Puzzle was slipped over Yugi's head, and almost instantly his eyes opened and the usual changes set in. Wide, purple eyes turned red and the hair warped and shifted.

"Yami?" Joey asked, helping the ex-Pharaoh to his feet and becoming concerned when Atem wavered and nearly fell.

"I'm fine. Just give me a moment," Yami snapped, already suffering from exhaustion and well aware there was no way he could fight in this state. It had taken a lot out of him to control a body he was not used to. He had been able to get away with it when Yugi and he had swapped places because Yugi's form and his were not so different anymore and they were, in a sense, the same person. However, Harry's body had not wanted him there, even if Harry had been more than willing to let him borrow it for awhile.

 _`Yami, if you're too tired...`_ Harry worried at him, glad that the link still existed between the three of them as long as one of the living members of their party held the Puzzle.

' _I...'_ Atem trailed off. He was exhausted, the body, which was not his to risk, was running on fumes. If he died now, whenever he had a corporeal form he could work through, it was not him he was getting killed. It was one of his link partners and he would never risk Yugi's safety. It just wasn't going to happen.

" _Ya...Yami?"_ the sound of Yugi's mental voice entering the link caused both Harry and Atem to pause. _"You're alive?"_

' _Not really,'_ Atem allowed.

" _But...Grandpa!"_ Yugi yelped as he took in what was bouncing around the minds of both his link partners. _"Yami, use my body!"_ The demand in Yugi's exhausted tone threw Atem. _"Please!"_

' _It's too dangerous, you're...'_

" _I don't care!"_ Yugi shouted, the pair of them could sense the mental equivalent of Yugi's hands balling into fists. _"I don't care what happens to me but we have to help Grandpa."_

' _Yugi...'_ Atem trailed off as Serenity presented him with a pair of potions.

"These will help. You'll hit the floor when everything I've dosed you with wears off, but..." she looked a little nervous as Yami downed the pair without a second's thought.

"Thank you," Atem nodded to her, reassured a little by the fact he at least had some power available and could stand upright, but still not happy about risking Yugi's safety. Yugi was pushing, though. If he did not go, he could sense Yugi would. He handed over a deck and a wand to Serenity. "Give these to Hermione?" he asked.

"Good luck," Serenity nodded, as the shadows rose up around the boys again. "You're going to need it." They were gone before the last word finished passing her lips.

* * *

"It's over," Voldemort smirked, pointing his wand at the white-haired figure sprawled on the floor before him, struggling for breath. "You're done."

Ryou could not argue with that. He had done everything he could to hold the Death Eaters at bay, used almost every trick Bakura had taught him. The shop was almost evacuated, but he could not continue fighting. He wanted to but he just could not. He hurt too much and there were too many of them.

"Now," Voldemort sounded like he was smirking, "die. Avada Kedav-"

Voldemort let out a pained yell as something struck him in the back. In the same instant, something grabbed Ryou and spirited him away to safety. "We've got you," he heard in his ear.

Ryou's head came up in confusion. Exhaustion and agony were coursing through every inch of him. Domino City was burning. The fiendfyre that had failed to penetrate the wards on the shop had proceeded to destroy the buildings around them and was spreading outwards. Others jumped into the fight. People in matching jackets. Above them, Ryou could hear the sounds of fire engines rushing to the worst affected areas.

"Damn them," Ombre hissed as she took him from the 'Mad Hatter' who proceeded to join his Duellist on the battlefield.

"Ombre?" Ryou asked, voice wavering.

"Yes, I came back," said Ombre, "I was told I had to be here. Good job I did."

"Thank you..." Ryou trailed off as Joey, Harry, Atem _et al_ appeared on the battlefield, flanked with their Duel Monsters. "Thank the gods."

"Not yet," said Ombre bitterly. She had been searching her deck for a card that could help, but paused then to watch Atem collapse against Mahado's side for a moment, his exhaustion more than clear in his actions. Harry and Joey covered him as Voldemort and the Death Eaters turned most of their attention on the new arrivals. "Yami's hurt and there's no sign of Yugi."

The dark Pharaoh moved away from his most loyal servant and darted towards the shop, just in time for the shop's wards to finally give way to the constant assault. The fiendfyre roared into the building, roasting everyone inside and causing interior gas lines to erupt. Mahado summoned a shield not unlike Mirror Force to protect Yami, but there was nothing he could do for those within the ruined structure.

Harry was the first to recover and cast a spell chain that pushed a couple of the Death Eaters back. Voldemort seemed to be crowing something at Atem, who wheeled around and snarled something back before summoning Osiris and unleashing its fury on his enemies - or at least he tried to, as Voldemort conjured a barrier against the god monster with seconds to spare. The Thunder Force Attack struck the magical field with a loud boom and burst outwards, causing most of the Death Eaters near Voldemort to flee. Those who did not were shocked into submission by the escaping electricity.

"I have to help," Ombre told Ryou, and as if to justify her, Atem narrowly avoided a deadly beam of green light, consequently coming nose-to-wand with a blasting hex that blew him off his feet with a deafening clap. The Death Eater who cast it had his wand at the downed Pharaoh's throat.

"Go," said Ryou, moving out of the way.

Atem was dragged to his feet by the hair, the wand still pressed against his neck. The sight of one of the Mutous being held hostage elicited a distinct pause in many of the fighters, including Osiris.

Voldemort gestured to Harry, fully confident of his own victory. His expression and posture said it all. 'Surrender or we'll kill your friend.' Ombre would have joined in then, had the Death Eater holding Atem not been attacked by a hitherto unseen Duel Monster that looked for all the world like a plush sheep. With the scarlet dragon covering his retreat, Atem broke free and bolted towards his friends.

Voldemort roared something Ombre did not catch, but she imagined 'kill them' was a safe bet, and as if on cue, an enormous dragon materialised before them. It was as large as Osiris, and shared many of its physical attributes, but instead of brilliant red it was deathly black and covered with patches of brown armour encrusted with sapphires and rubies.

"Osiris!" Atem bellowed, gesturing to his God monster. The red dragon of the heavens bellowed at its false counterpart and launched another Thunder Force Attack, which was met in the air by an equally potent blast of black energy. The meeting caused an explosion that rocked the ground beneath them and knocked a few people off of their feet.

When the smoke cleared, both God and Evil God were gone, each annihilated by the other. Voldemort and Atem were both about ready to begin round two, when tanks rumbled up and a rather large group of people, all in JSDF uniforms arrived and instantly started attacking the Death Eaters, with magic, guns or, in a few rare cases swords.

The Death Eaters, realising that they had lost their advantage of both numbers and training, fled. Voldemort himself took one last pot-shot at Harry, which narrowly missed, before vanishing too. The Duellists, the soldiers, and the Duel Monsters were left to deal with the resultant devastation.

Yugi took control the moment Voldemort left, darting for the shop.

"Yuge! Yuge, wait!" Joey caught him as he tried to shoot past. "The fire!"

"Let me go!" Yugi sobbed as he struggled against his friend's arms, watching in abject despair as his home burned. The moment the flames had been extinguished, Joey let him go. Yugi dove into the ruins, searching around for any possible survivors. Everything was torched. Once the fiendfyre had forced its way past the protective wards, its outrage had known no bounds.

It was not long before Yugi's worst fears were realised, as he dug through the charred remains of what could have been the counter, the doors or even the upstairs kitchen work surfaces. The fire had made the half-buried figure underneath him completely unrecognisable, but there was no denying its identity. Yugi let out a feral howl of hopelessness and slumped onto his hands and knees, weeping into the ashes. They were all that was left of his home and his family.


	11. Picking Up the Pieces

Of all the places he had ever thought about returning to, Duellist Kingdom had never been on his list. He had thought it might be a possibility considering his job, but he had never expected the castle that held so many bad memories for his friends to become their only refuge.

Rage coursed through Tristan again as the reason for their 'protective custody,' passed through his mind. A considerable chunk of his hometown was gone, burned by the sentient flames that had been summoned by the latest lunatic. It was not the fault of Yugi or the others, they never actively encouraged this crap, but his home, their homes and so much more was gone because someone wanted them dead. Again.

He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. It would not help anyone if he lost his head. He had to be the calm, level-headed one, just as he always had when things got too rough and everyone around him was falling apart. Normally it was Yugi's job to keep everyone's spirit up, he was much better at it than anyone else, but Tristan knew his friend. Yugi would not be able to be the pillar everyone needed him to be right now, not with the funerals he had had to attend yesterday.

When it got too much for Yugi, when his almost limitless hope and faith that it would be all right, ran out he turned inwards and retreated from the outside world. Tristan remembered, after all, what had happened after Yami nearly killed Kaiba in Duellist Kingdom and any hope of saving his Grandfather had seemed lost, or when Marik all but killed Joey during Battle City. Yugi had nearly given up on everything during those times, and seeing the bodies of his grandfather, his parents and his 'brother,' put in the ground because someone was after _him_ was much, much worse.

No one else could do what Yugi could, and with this latest enemy able to summon monsters equal to the Gods, they needed Yugi and Yugi needed his friends if he was going to pull himself together. Before they could help Yugi, however, Tristan needed to help the others pick themselves up. Even though he did not know who this new enemy was or why they were after his friends, he understood the usual score. This would only be the first wave. Their adversary would return and if they could not at least think straight enough to function as a team again, then things would only get worse.

The sound of something breaking down the hallway caught his attention and derailed his train of thought. Considering there were not very many people living on the island, he suspected one of his friends, specifically Joey, was having a long overdue meltdown. He followed the sounds of crashing and smashing down the hallway to where his suspicions were confirmed by the sight of Joey tearing a room apart piece by piece. Broken furniture littered the area, part of what had once been a chair having gone flying past him as he reached the doorframe.

Tristan actually considered joining him for a few moments, then he watched Joey wheel around, glare at something, saw it explode and decided that now was a good time to intercede. He had seen Yami (Atem, he reminded himself) lose it often enough to know that once the magic started flowing, someone needed to step in before they caused any damage of a more permanent nature.

"Oi!" he called as he stepped into the room, ducking under a piece of desk that went flying before Joey registered that someone was talking to him. "What's the poor vase done to you?"

"Butt out, Tristan!" Joey snarled, about ready to start a brawl. Tristan understood why. Joey's home life had been unpleasant at the best of times until Yugi's grandpa had practically adopted him. Joey had not just lost his home in the fire, he had lost the first adult who had ever really tried to help him.

"If you need to vent, take it out on someone who can fight back!" Tristan shot back, ignoring the attempt at an order. He did not answer to Joey. The only one whose orders he followed without reserve was Yugi, even his superiors did not get the same complete obedience. "Outside."

Joey did not need another prod. He stalked out of the room, muttering something about a 'decent fight.' The moment he was gone, an odd little humanoid creature with big ears, wearing a tunic with a castle logo on popped in and bowed to Tristan before getting to work repairing the room. Tristan decided that he was not going to ask and followed his friend out.

* * *

"What do you mean we can't take our daughter home?" Gillian growled at the representative the Japanese Ministry had sent to deliver the bad news. It was over a week since they had last heard anything, and with her husband backing her up, Gillian was literally towering over the tiny visitor.

"Your daughter, Granger-san," he said, trying to keep the tremble out of his tone, "is a member of the Pharaoh's court. Due to recent events, it has become necessary to take the Pharaoh and his people into protective custo..."

"You threw her in jail?!" Gillian was practically spitting fire.

"No, no, nothing like that!" spluttered the man. "But we have had her moved to a safe location off the mainland. We would be willing to provide you with room and board here in Japan, but as we understand the situation, returning to England right now isn't in the best interests of you or your daughter."

"We are British citizens. We have the right to go home. We've done nothing wrong," Adrian growled.

"Your daughter is also a member of the Domino Clan. That gives her part Japanese citizenship," the man replied. "Not only that, but she is a member of the Inner Circle within the Pharaoh's court. It may not mean much to you or your magical government but we understand what it means. There isn't a single member of the Inner Circle in that safe house right now who hasn't been to hell and back, quite literally. Your daughter is a very brave young woman who nearly died while trying to prevent Shadowmorn and we refuse to hand her over to Europe where her bravery will only be rewarded with execution."

"So you want us to just leave her here?" Hermione's mother demanded, furious that some foreigner thought he knew better than her when it came to her daughter.

"Yes," the man replied. "We can set you up anywhere you choose to go, and once this is all over we will be more than willing to help you return to England and set up all over again."

"We're not going to abandon our daughter to some-"

The ringing of the hotel video 'phone in the corner of the room cut Adrian off before he could say anything regrettable.

"Feel free," the man told them, "I can wait."

Adrian glowered at him as Gillian picked up the 'phone, and Hermione's face appeared on the video screen.

"Mum? Dad?" Hermione's features lit up the moment she spotted them on the viewer. "You're both all right?"

Gillian let out a sigh, happy and relieved to see her daughter unharmed. "Yes, we're fine," she said. "We were some of the first adults evacuated. We heard about the shop..." Gillian trailed off when Hermione's face fell and her daughter let out a soft, miserable sound. "Hermione?"

"Sorry. I'm fine, fine," Hermione shook herself slightly, "it's the others I'm worried about. Yugi..." She exhaled. "Mum, Dad..." Her voice failed her.

"Where are you?" Adrian asked his daughter, sitting on the desk to watch the view screen.

"I can't say," Hermione replied, looking sheepish.

"Hermione," Gillian's tone was one of scolding, but the man interrupted them.

"Actually, she really can't say," he explained. "You see there's a geis in place that prevents her from revealing the location verbally. She really can't tell you."

"A what?" Adrian demanded.

"A magical contract," said Hermione, "one I signed willingly in order to protect my friends."

"You're coming home with us. Today," Adrian snarled at his daughter, furious that she had been forced to make that decision and had done so without their input.

"No," Hermione shook her head, her voice breaking slightly on the word, "I won't, I can't. My friends need me, dad. I can't leave them now."

"And what about us?" Adrian demanded. "We're your parents."

"Adrian," Gillian spoke sharply, causing her husband to pull up. "Hermione... we're your parents and we love you. We would just rather have this conversation face to face, not over some video conference."

"I want you here too," said Hermione, wiping away tears with the back of her hand, "but..."

Gillian turned to the Japanese representative and asked, "Why can't we see our daughter?"

"Because, Granger-san, your daughter is a high profile target in an ongoing terrorist situation involving magic," the man informed her. "Recent events involving the destruction of the entire Mutou family bar Mutou Yugi, have shown that the terrorists will target families, homes and livelihoods if they know where they are and if they are unable to attack their targets directly. By splitting you and your daughter up, at least until the situation is over, we are working to prevent more needless deaths."

"So we can't even see her for an hour?" Gillian demanded, frustrated but remembering the devastation that the Death Eaters had caused.

"It's not safe. Not for you and not for her," the man sounded genuinely apologetic. "Perhaps once the situation has stabilised and we can guarantee a secure location for both of you it might be possible, but until this problem has been resolved..." He shook his head. "No. I'm sorry, for all of you, but no. Now I'm sorry Granger-san, but your parents and I need to discuss some things."

"I understand," Hermione nodded.

"Be safe Hermione," Gillian nodded, "I love you."

"We'll see you soon, Hermione, okay?" Adrian asked, giving his daughter a broad smile that they all knew was forced, "I love you."

"I love you too," Hermione ended the call.

"Now," said the representative, "about getting you two settled in..."

* * *

Mai let out a relieved sigh as she stepped onto the battlements and found who she was looking for. When she had passed the infirmary earlier, Serenity had been in a bit of a tizzy. The young healer-in-training had turned her back on her charges for just a few moments while she collected together the recommended potions under the watchful gaze of her mentor, only to find that her most important one had disappeared.

Mai had promised to go and find him, reassuring Joey's little sister that he was probably fine before darting out to look. She had looked in the most obvious places, certain that he would not have left the castle, not with how lethargic he had been since he had awoken, checking the Duelling Arena, the kitchens, the dining hall and the courtyard before thinking of the one place he might have gone.

It kind of made sense for him to be here considering that this was where he had had his first breakdown, at least the first breakdown that she was aware of, and no one would have expected him to come here willingly. It was quiet, he would not be disturbed and though Mai could see that his other self was there with him, he was all alone.

Frowning slightly as she carefully walked along the edge of the castle, she made her way over to him, nodding to his Other Self as she passed him and climbed up onto the stones around the edge, where he was sat.

"This seat taken?" Mai did not get a response, she did not honestly expect one, so she sat down next to him regardless. He did not even appear to register her arrival and she heard his Other Self let out a frustrated sigh. "You gave Serenity a shock and a half, vanishing like that." Still nothing.

Mai mentally grimaced. She recognised this. She had seen him like this before. After he had duelled against Kaiba on this very battlement. It had taken a lot of effort to break him out of his slump the last time and she was not sure that she would be able to do it. She did have an idea though. When she had been exploring the castle, looking for him, she had come across something he would recognise.

"Hey," she said, poking him in the shoulder, "I have something for you." With that she shoved her hand under his nose, where he would not be able to ignore it.

He did, in fact, blink, though that could have been the shock from a hand suddenly appearing in his line of sight when he had been miles away and she saw recognition flicker in his eyes for a moment before he reached up and took it from her, examining the tiny, golden star as Mai withdrew her hand.

Confusion featured on his face prominently as he turned to look at her, causing Mai to cheer within her own mind. No words had passed his lips, that was true, but this was more interaction than he had had with anyone since the funerals.

She knew he remembered the Duellist Kingdom tournament as well as she did, better in some cases. He probably remembered her last attempt to give him Star Chips and how badly that had gone. So much had changed since then and she could see his Other Self giving her the same, confused look as him. Back then she had known them under the same name, a name they now shared once again. She knew so much more now.

"It's worth one continue," Mai told Yugi, whose eyes widened for a moment, then he tried to hand the Star Chip back.

She remembered this too. Him not believing that he deserved a second chance. That he could only endanger more people or screw up even further. Him refusing to take her Star Chips because of it, even though taking them was the only way to get into the castle and save his grandpa.

"You don't have to use it now," Mai promised, watching as he slowly withdrew his attempt to give it to her and went back to staring down at it, "it can't force you to talk, or interact with the others or anything like that." Some of the stress that she had noticed seemed to melt off of his frame. "And it won't allow you to go back in time and fix anything. No restarting from the last save point, I'm afraid." There was a brief flicker of a smile from both Yugis, alive and deceased. "But when you're ready, you have a continue ready to use and I'll be there to support you. As will everyone else."

Yugi seemed to sink in on himself again at that, causing both Mai and Yami to let out a frustrated hiss. "You can't seriously believe that it was your fault in any way, shape or form?" Mai asked him.

Yugi did not respond to that. Mai wanted to face palm. Of course Yugi blamed himself for what had happened. He always did, even when it could not possibly be his fault that his friends or family had been hurt.

"The people who attacked the park and your home were like every other bad guy I've seen you fight," Mai informed him, trying to talk some sense into him, "even if you had done everything they wanted, they were still going to do what they did and you'd probably be dead to boot." Yami sighed softly and Mai turned her attention curiously to him.

"He did do what they wanted," said Yami. Mai tried to ignore how weird she felt to be able to see and hear him. She had to, for this might be her only chance to learn the full story. "Kaiba lured him in and Yugi handed himself over to Neos and his thugs to prevent them killing his friends."

"But they killed you anyway," said Mai, reading between the lines. Yami's nod and Yugi's nod were completely different. Yami's was sharp, frustrated and angry, while Yugi's was slow, tired and miserable. "And while Neos had Yugi, we were all focused on getting him back while the other one, Moldywarts or whatever the hell his name is, ran riot." Yugi seemed to sink further and further as Mai spoke. Yami nodded once again, but did not say anything. Mai growled inwardly in exasperation. "Then you couldn't win," she said, eyes on Yugi, "not that time. Anything you did was going to get someone killed, you just took what seemed like the best option."

Yugi looked like the knowledge of that hurt more than Mai understood and it took a while for her to grasp exactly why. They may have 'lost' in the past, as 'Pharaoh Atem' but this was the first time _Yugi_ had ever been forced into a position where there was no way to 'win.' Until now, there had always been a way for Yugi to manage to save everyone. This time he had been trapped with no way out. No matter what he had done, someone would have been killed and the death toll had been in the hundreds of thousands and was still rising as the casualties from the fiendfyre that had ravaged Domino continued to mount up.

"You couldn't know," said Mai, "Whatever-His-Name-Is didn't show up until after you'd made your choice. Anything that happened after you handed yourself over isn't your fault, it was your enemy's turn by that point." Yugi said nothing. "Besides, unless you have some way to prove what's his face wouldn't have shown up if you hadn't tried to commit 'suicide by bad guy,' there's no..." Mai trailed off as something clicked into place inside her mind. "You think we should have left you for dead," she snarled.

Yugi continued to sit and sulk, although a response was not really necessary. The truth was that logically, he was right. With Yami's power, even if it was running through Harry at the time, along with their own abilities, it was quite possible that they could have stopped Voldemort in his tracks. Logic, unfortunately, had never worked around them. The Clan had always been very protective of its own and even Yugi fought much harder when it was his friends on the line, not just the world.

"You know that's never going to happen, right?" Mai asked. Yugi nodded dejectedly. "And that we let it delay us is our fault, not yours." When Yugi hesitated, Mai scowled, "So you have mind control now?" Yugi shook his head hastily. "Then it was our choice to come get you, not yours so stop moping, take your continue token and get on with it!" Mai snapped, having finally lost her patience. Yugi winced slightly. Yami looked like he wanted to say something, but did not get a word in edgeways before Mai had started again, "You give up, it's game over! You really want to let him win? There are so many people who look to you, Yugi Mutou, don't you dare let them down by being too afraid of making the wrong choice to help them."

She prodded him roughly in the chest. Still nothing, but she could see that this time it was not because he was withdrawing into himself, but because her words had actually gotten through that thick skull of his and he was mulling them over. Mai got to her feet to let Yugi think in private. She was startled to see Yami's face awash with relief, more-so to hear him whisper, "Thank you."

"I'll be in the kitchens," said Mai. Yugi's stomach growled, breaking his train of thought. He prodded his own stomach with detached amusement. "And perhaps you should come with me."

Yugi got to his feet, went to step down from the stones, paused, slipped the Star Chip into one of the empty deck holsters on his belts and jumped down next to her, smiling at her for just a moment.

"Come on," Mai chuckled, herding him inside, "let's get you fed before you waste away on us."

* * *

Draco Malfoy was many things but stupid, at least in his opinion, was not one of them.

He was well aware that the Clan had barely tolerated him before the Battle of Domino City and now, with what Voldemort and his Death Eaters had done, he, who was a known sympathiser, was probably the last person any of them wanted to see. Normally that would not have bothered him. He was not exactly one to avoid causing aggravation for others wherever or whenever possible, but even he knew better than to poke a sleeping dragon, and for the group he found himself staying with, that was an apt description. The slightest hint of the wrong subject might set them off and he could not trust that they would not turn on him once provoked.

As such, he had spent most of the last week and a half searching through the library on the island for anything useful that he could take advantage of to give himself a boost, should the worst happen. It had been Bakura who had taught him to take every advantage one could get if you were planning for a battle and Bakura had _always_ been planning for it, which meant Draco had learnt an awful lot of spells, both offensive and defensive.

This library, however, was full of new things for him to learn and exploit. Something he planned on taking every chance to do. He may not have wanted to follow his father's path anymore and end up grovelling at Voldemort's feet, Malfoys' were supposed to have more pride than that and Bakura had certainly taught him better than his loser of a father had ever done, but he had no intention of following the rules of a bunch of half-bloods, mudbloods and blood traitors.

There was, however, a small problem with any plan he could come up with. Since his father's imprisonment and his mother's downfall into insanity, Bakura had been his guardian. After Bakura's death, Yugi's grandfather had been his designated guardian along with Luna Lovegood's, whose father had been killed during the same incident as the one that had claimed Bakura's life, and now that the elderly Mutou was deceased, they were in fact the wards of a formerly muggle woman by the name of Mai Valentine.

He would have ignored the rules she had laid down for him and Loony Lovegood, except that Valentine had the backing of the entirety of Potter's freak show and he suspected that if he dared cross her, the woman herself would have at least attempted to deal with the problem long before the others got to him. She was surprisingly scary for a muggle, and it was not just her Shadow powers that made her so.

With that being the case, he had to do everything the sneaky way. He was good at the sneaky way. A lot of his more public bluster within the halls of Hogwarts after their second year had been a diversionary tactic in order to prevent people from realising just how adept at being sneaky he had become. Not that he had ever reached Bakura's level, nor was he likely to, but it had been more than enough for their teachers and the other students. Plus he had a little advantage that no one knew about yet.

His hand went to his neck, where the rope attached to the Millennium Item that had claimed him rested. He had been allowed to keep the Millennium Ring for two reasons, firstly because he had sworn on his magic not to use it to attack the rest of the Clan, and secondly because he had turned its powers against some of the Death Eaters trying to claim the Millennium Items from the remains of what had once been the vault deep within the Kaiba Mansion. Part of him still believed that the Ring was his and his alone, but it was mostly because he was of the firm opinion that morons like them did not deserve the power of _his_ Millennium Item.

It still amused him that he held the Item that once belonged to the King of Thieves, while Potter could wield the power of the Pharaoh's Item. It seemed the wrong way around to him. The rich, well-educated boy had inherited the powers of a thief, while the 'Boy-Who-Lived' who had grown up with no money and surrounded by muggles, gained the powers of a king.

Not that Potter was willing to hold onto the power he could claim, another difference between the pair of them. Draco adamantly refused to give up the Ring to anyone, not that Ryou wanted it from him now Bakura was no longer attached, while Potter had handed the Puzzle back to Yugi at the first opportunity.

Still, without Zorc pressing at his mind the entire time he was wearing it, he could use the Ring's powers without worrying too much about falling under its influence. After all, the Spirit of the Ring was gone, the Demon attached to him too, and that just left the artefact's own power for Draco to cause mischief with.

Skimming a book he had left by the door the day previous, he headed towards the back, where another pile of books awaited him, only to find his private hideaway had been invaded by a certain Asian boy with long, black hair and slate grey eyes. He was reading from an official looking file with the Kaiba Corp logo printed on the front, and was as startled as Draco by the sudden interruption.

"Malfoy," the boy acknowledged him, watching warily. Draco shifted uncomfortably under the younger teen's gaze, which was every bit as sharp and cold as the elder Kaiba's.

"Kaiba," Draco finally nodded back, before settling at the table which held his stack of books. Mokuba's eyes followed him until he started reading, then and only then returning to his paperwork. Curiosity overcame Draco before too long and he carefully stole a glance at the papers strewn across Mokuba's table, only to realise that he was reading the damage reports from the problems in the park.

"Butt out," Mokuba grouched at him as Draco became all too engrossed in a small stack labelled, 'Coroner's Report.' Whatever a coroner or an 'autopsy' as it purported to contain were, they were not for prying eyes to see.

"Am I not allowed to be curious?" Draco replied, not rising to the bait.

"Not about this," Mokuba snarled back, snatching the pile of papers which Draco could see had Yami's name on and burying it under another stack. "Butt. Out."

They sat in silence for awhile, giving Draco time to finish the book he was reading. By that point Mokuba was lost in his paperwork again, giving Draco just the opportunity he was waiting for. The young Malfoy stretched and stood up, taking his book with him as if he was going to put it back on the shelf. The younger Kaiba did not so much as twitch as Draco passed, so distracted by the reports about what building work needed to be done that he did not see Draco slip the papers he wanted out of the massive stack and vanish behind the nearest bookshelf to read them.

Most of it was written in jargon the pure-blood did not understand, but the terms 'Cause of Death' and 'Verdict' were pretty simple. Draco had just assumed that it had been the water that had killed Yami, and technically it had but not the way Draco had thought. When the water had hit him, the coroner reported, it was most likely that Yami had been swept off of his feet which was how he had smashed his head against the tunnel hard enough to cause cranial, which Draco was pretty sure meant head, injuries severe enough to kill him on the spot. The verdict, of course, was murder since the floodgates had been specifically opened with the deliberate intent of ending Yami's life.

"If you're quite done."

Draco jumped and wheeled around to find Mokuba looming behind him, and worryingly looming was the correct word, since the young Kaiba had shot up in the last year. Mokuba was heading towards his brother's height and though he was a good handful of feet short on that front yet, that still made him much taller than Draco.

Having gotten what he wanted from that particular ream of paper, Draco negligently handed them back, refusing to show how effective Mokuba's tactics were. The younger Kaiba had learned well from his older sibling. "I would have thought you would be hanging around the rest of your so-called family," Draco prodded, pleased that the teen in front of him looked disconcerted, "I take it you're not welcome either."

"I'm more welcome than you," Mokuba hissed at him, ill amused by the thought of the fact that he had to share yet more space with the Death Eater sympathiser.

"Sure," Draco rose to the bait without looking like he had, one of the few tricks of Bakura's that had he had taken to right away, "that's why you're hiding in here."

"I'm not hiding. I just need some peace and quiet to work on this."

Draco could tell that was not the whole truth, but before he could press, Mokuba scowled at him. "Besides, I don't have to justify myself to the likes of you," said the younger Kaiba, and he stalked off, papers in hand. Draco let out a low hiss. He was in the mood for a real row and it looked like Mokuba was not set on obliging him. He followed the younger Kaiba around the corner in order to try again, only to find that Mokuba and his paperwork were gone.

So much for that idea.

* * *

It had been hard enough for Minister Fudge to stay in power after the events of CardCon, but it had been possible purely because the event had been a muggle one and the Ministry had promised they were doing something. After the attack on Japan however, when everyone had been afraid that other countries would attack if they thought Voldemort would reign down death and devastation on them, Fudge had lasted less than three hours. Just enough time for him to pack up his office, refuse to leave and be 'escorted' from the building, still claiming that he was only doing what had been 'for the best.' _"For the good of Cornelius Fudge,"_ was left unsaid by the people who were glad to see the back of him.

Rufus Scrimgeour, his successor, was a much different man. A former Auror who had fought in the last war, he was not foolish enough to think that Voldemort would just go away if they ignored him. Voldemort's recent actions, after all, had just proven that time had made the Dark Lord worse, not better. He also was not stupid enough to ignore the fact that reparations had to be made with Japan.

Having spent the last week and a bit rearranging his cabinet, dealing with the fallout and in talks with the muggle Prime Minister, he was not looking forward to his arrival in the foreign country with his highly competent and trusted secretary, Amanda Cartwright, and Delores Umbridge, his particularly unhelpful under-secretary who, try as he might, seemed impossible to get shot of.

What he wanted to do was talk to Potter and those around him. It was widely believed that Potter was the only one who could defeat Voldemort. With him on the Ministry's side, a lot of the wizards who were too frightened to stand up for themselves might stand beside the Ministry in these trying times. To do that, however, he had to actually be allowed to speak with the Domino Clan, something he was certain that the Japanese Magical Ministry would go out of their way to avoid.

Still, he was not his predecessor. Where Fudge would have tried to bribe and bluster his way into whatever safe house they had squirreled the Clan away in, while getting other people to do the dirty work for him, Scrimgeour was fully aware that such tactics were pointless now. He had read the official files the moment he had been allowed access to the top secret documents and he was certain that the Japanese Ministry would be on the lookout for the sorts of things his predecessor had gotten the Department of Mysteries to do in order to keep the Japanese students mostly docile and willing to stay amongst a student populace who they had little to no interaction with and in a situation that had been to their disadvantage without even questioning it.

Not that he planned on treading too softly. He had been an Auror under Bartemius Crouch after all. During the first war, they had not exactly stayed within the boundaries of the rules of the 'light' side of magic. Aurors had been allowed to use Unforgivables and people could be arrested without proof and detained just because people believed them to be Death Eaters. He did not plan on allowing it to get so far again, but those tactics had been to calm the panicking public during that conflict, and they had worked to a point.

If he could get Potter and his Clan on his side, however, he was sure that those tactics would not be necessary.

"Right," Scrimgeour started when his secretary and her hanger-on entered his office. Amanda shut the door behind them, pulled a quill out of her hair and a piece of parchment from her satchel, already prepared to take notes. "You've both read the brief?"

"We're going to speak to the leader of Magical Japan," Amanda nodded, tapping her quill against her wedding ring as she spoke and ignoring the grimace on Delores's face as she did so, "in order to work out how we can work together to avoid a war situation and regain contact with the Boy-Who-Lived." Amanda's eyes flickered to Delores, "I will stay by your side in order to take notes and remind you of important points, while Delores takes secondary notes and stays silent."

Delores glowered at the higher ranked secretary. Amanda ignored her. She was well aware of Delores's lust for power and the fact she had been aiming for the secretary position before Fudge had been finally removed from power. That and she was sure, but could not prove, that Delores was a Death Eater sympathiser and wanted more than just the muggle-born secretary's removal from the office.

"Indeed," Scrimgeour nodded, "this is not just an important meeting. This may be the last opportunity we have to settle with Japan before they decide on their countermeasures. With almost one hundred and fifteen thousand people deceased and many, many more injured, Japan are readying a counter attack and the previous administration did nothing to aid our position." He raised an eyebrow as he saw Delores looked like she had something to say, "Go on."

"With all due respect, Minister," Delores simpered, causing Amanda to roll her eyes. Delores seemed to be under the impression that kissing up to Scrimgeour would wield results when Amanda was fully aware that doing so just irritated the man. "I've seen nothing in the brief to suggest that the Japanese Ministry is any sort of threat to us. Their wizarding contingent is larger, yes, but other than that they have what? A few magical creatures? Our Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures are well versed in..."

"Delores," Scrimgeour interrupted, "their magical community is very closely knit. The madoushi, what they call their wizards and witches, are only part of a balanced system which allows what they call gods and demons to co-exist alongside not just each other, but humans, both magical and muggle, and spirits. The balance will have been shifting as it is with the arrival of the new brand of magic and I seriously doubt that the invasion of their 'territory' will go unnoticed or, if we do not prevent further fallout, unpunished."

Delores frowned, firmly believing that the Minister was playing into the hype that had been rising since people had actually started paying attention to countries outside of the ICoW's sphere of influence. "But the ICoW..."

"Can't do anything," Amanda reminded her, "they've already stated that they will support Japan in demanding reparations for the damage caused by terrorists that the former cabinet were warned about and openly supported through their inaction and support of former members."

Scrimgeour nodded again. "Basically we have been hung out to dry and I for one would like to prevent any more bloodshed than necessary," he said. "Now I would suggest that you attempt to re-read the brief with a more open mind and do try not to cause an international incident. I would prefer not to leave my undersecretary in a foreign jail, but I will if it will assist talks." Delores stared at him for a moment, then shut her mouth. Scrimgeour grimaced slightly at the fact she was obviously biting her tongue but continued his planning session. "We will be leaving in an hour for the English Embassy in Tokyo, where we will be met by the ambassador. He will take us to the office of the Speaker for Magical Japan, an elected official who is the voice for the magical side of Japan within their government..."

"The wizards answer to muggles?" Delores could not help but show her disgust at that.

"It was in the brief," Amanda reminded her.

"I assumed that it had been phrased badly during the type up," Delores said, making the comment offhand but causing Amanda to bristle none the less at the accusation that she had not done her job properly.

Scrimgeour narrowly avoided shaking his head at the pair of them, wishing he could work out how Delores had made herself irreplaceable within the office structure because he would much rather get rid of her and allow Amanda to replace her with someone the muggle-born knew she could get along with. "Ladies, please," he said instead, "I would prefer if some level of professionalism was maintained during this trip."

"Sorry Rufus," Amanda sighed, "do continue." Scrimgeour glanced at Delores, who just nodded her agreement.

"It is imperative that we regain contact with the Boy-Who-Lived and his Clan," Scrimgeour informed the pair. "I am not stupid enough to fall for Rita Skeeter's rubbish. Not with the information we have gathered. We know there's a prophecy between Potter and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and we all know that despite the public's uncertainty regarding his alliance to the light, they all believe that he will be the one to defeat Voldemort."

"If I may, Rufus," Amanda spoke up, "Potter's never been allied to light or dark, not from what my daughter tells me."

The Minister thought for a moment, then smiled slightly, "I remember Lucy, she's a Hufflepuff in Potter's year, isn't she?"

"That's right," said Amanda, "she's run into the group multiple times and she told me just after Shadowmorn that if I believed Skeeter's lies, I was an idiot because Potter was friends with the Mutous and had helped them through some rough times, just while they were at that school. The Mutous are not a light family, but they aren't a dark one either."

"The last living Mutou calls himself Pharaoh of the Shadows." Delores pointed out. "That's not a 'light' trait."

"No, everyone else calls Yugi Mutou, Pharaoh," Amanda reminded her, "and he was the one who stopped Shadowmorn."

"That does not make him a light wizard." Delores shot back.

"No," Amanda felt a bit like she was banging her head against the wall, "but there is such a thing as a grey wizard. Someone who has to tangle with the dark in order to keep the light. Or did you forget that classification appeared when the Aurors used to have to use dark tactics for light means?"

"If we can get back to the subject at hand," Scrimgeour interrupted again, "I believe I have a sure fire method of regaining Potter's trust once we can speak with him."

"As long as he believes in destiny," Amanda sighed.

"Is it wise," Delores asked, "to allow Potter access to the Hall of Prophecy?"

"We have very little to offer otherwise," Scrimgeour admitted, "not that can't be offered by the Japanese Ministry. Besides, we need to know what is in that prophecy as much as he does. Dumbledore is being frustratingly silent on the matter, if he even still remembers it."

"Then offering that might be beneficial to both sides," Amanda realised.

"Why not just get the Hall's caretaker to bring the Orb containing the prophecy here and take it with us?" Delores asked.

"Because the Dark Lord will want to know what it says too," Scrimgeour informed her, "and unless he plans on storming the Ministry, the only way for him get it is if we remove it from the Department of Mysteries."

There was a knock on the door. Amanda opened it, frustrated that Delores seemed to think such simple tasks were below her, to find that Amelia Bones, the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was waiting on the other side.

"Bones," Scrimgeour greeted her, "come in."

"Thank you, Minister," Bones replied, entering with a brief nod to Amanda and the most sparing of glances at Delores. "You requested that I provide bodyguards for your trip to Japan." She stepped aside and allowed two Aurors to follow her in. "I recommend Aurors Tonks and Shacklebolt," she gestured to the pair, "they're a good pair, work well as a team, and Tonks is a metamorphmagus, which means she can disguise herself and fit in anywhere."

Answering a quick hand-signal from Bones, Tonks shifted forms to the point where she was an identical copy of Delores, who squeaked and took offence immediately. "Change back at once!" Delores demanded, glowering at the fake her, who shifted and instead looked like Amanda, who instead of taking offence, was delighted by this new facet of magic.

"Perfect," said Scrimgeour, "Bones, will you see us off?"

Thinking of the security nightmare this trip was, she grimaced as she answered, "Wouldn't miss it, sir."

* * *

Harry was leaving.

He knew the dangers of doing so, that he was stronger with the others around than on his own, that he was quite likely to be killed if he tried taking on the Death Eaters and Voldemort by himself, but he could not stay.

Not when his presence had brought down Voldemort on their heads. The Dark Lord had made it blatantly clear that it was him that he wanted, though Harry did not know why when Yugi and Yami were a lot more powerful than him, and if Harry had not been in Japan, Voldemort would not have attacked Domino and Yugi's family, along with tens of thousands of others, would still be alive.

Duellist Kingdom was supposed to be safe for them, however Harry did not want to risk his Clan. The shop should have been safe with all the work Yami and Ombre had put into warding it, and even those had broken down under a long enough assault. The wards around the island, which had been put up with assistance from the Japanese Ministry and their various mages, could fold just as easily.

No, he had to leave before Voldemort worked out where they were and attacked again. His friends were not up to fighting him again, not right now. He knew they would come after him but he hoped that, if he played it right, he could give them time to recover before they did so.

This was not a decision he had rushed. After Yugi had collapsed when the potions Serenity had given him wore off, Harry had stayed at his side the entire time, right up until the new Pharaoh of the Shadows had come around a week later. When Yugi had awoken, realised where he was and remembered why and withdrawn into himself, Harry had not been able to stay. Not with the emotions that were drowning Yugi rushing over the link.

When Yugi had closed his side of the link just minutes later, it had given Harry the chance he needed to think. All through the funerals of Yugi's parents, brother and grandfather, Harry had been there, supporting Yugi physically, while Yami supported him mentally and spiritually. Harry had not needed the link then to know how devastated the Pharaoh, his closest friend, really was, but it had supported the decision that he was already close to making while waiting for Yugi to come around.

It would be better for everyone if Harry was not there, and with everyone distraught or distracted, it was the perfect time for him to slip away. It was looking like it would be easy for him to do so too, as there was no one in the almost empty castle to see where he was heading, even if he had not been wearing his invisibility cloak. The castle had been put on the Japanese floo network, though the incoming fireplaces had been heavily warded against anyone entering who was not keyed in. It would be easy for him to use one of the fireplaces for him to get to Japan and from there he could ask the Embassy to get him back to England.

Dropping the cloak at the door, he entered the room of fireplaces and tried to remember which one led where and where they had put the floo powder. All of the fireplaces were warded the same way, but it was not just the Japanese floo network they were attached to. Pegasus had had all of these fireplaces connected to a country in which he had a branch of his company. All in all, that meant that this particularly long room had something like thirty fireplaces in it, and only one of those led to Japan.

Each one had a picture frame on its mantelpiece with a picture of a flag in. Harry would have used the one that had the English flag stood atop it, but it had been decided that cutting that particular connection was an excellent idea no matter how well warded the fireplaces were.

Finding the one for Japan was the easy part. The hard part was working out what had been done with the floo powder. He was certain that the last time he had been in here it had been in a pot by the door, however the pot had been moved. Wondering whether someone had suspected that he might try and pull this, Harry hunted through the room's cupboards and mantelpieces, all of which had some piece of culture from its target country on.

He finally found the pot hidden beside the very last fireplace on the row and, taking a handful of the glittering silvery powder, Harry grimaced as he heard Mai's voice heading up the corridor and darted for the fireplace to Japan.

Not pausing to wonder who Mai was talking to he pointed his wand at the fireplace. "Incendio." Red flames erupted on the marble hearth and Harry chucked the floo powder in, causing the flames to suddenly flare up again, turning a bright green colour.

Before he could speak, something had latched onto him. Something human shaped with insane hair and wide, pleading purple eyes that was not going to let go.

"Yugi..." Harry trailed off, having not thought about what he would stay if he got caught.

"Stay." It was a broken, half-sob of a word, but all of Harry's arguments for leaving melted away at the sound of Yugi's voice as the barrier between him and his link partner dissolved and Harry realised that no matter how much Harry blamed himself, Yugi did not.

Harry did not know what to say or do. He believed that he should go, but the shock of Yugi actually saying something for the first time in days had thrown his train of thoughts off of a cliff and taken all of his excuses with it.

"Please," Yugi mumbled. Able to once again read Yugi's mind and emotions as clearly as if they were his own, Harry picked up on something he had not before the link had been closed.

Yugi was afraid. Afraid that everyone would leave him and he would be left worse off than he had been before he had completed the Millennium Puzzle. With the man who had raised him deceased, his parents, who had only walked back into his life just a week before they had been killed, gone, combined with the fact that after finally settling with Yami that he would not leave as long as he had his own body, the former Pharaoh had been sent back to the Puzzle and left possessing Yugi if he truly wanted to interact with the word around him, Yugi was terrified that his friends would leave too because it was too dangerous to be around him.

"I have to Yugi," Harry tried, "Voldemort wants me, not you or the others. If I go..." Yugi said nothing but his grip tightened on Harry, whose voice failed him.

"You're seriously thinking about walking away right now?" Mai demanded, hovering in the doorway as the green flames, which had nothing to burn, died out.

"It's not safe for me to be here," Harry said softly, "Voldemort will come back and try again. And again. And again. Until I'm dead and so is everyone who stood by me. I can't... Yugi?"

Yugi pushed him away, eliciting a yelp from Harry, who for a moment was convinced that perhaps it was Yami gazing crossly at him, but the purple eyes and the lack of blonde highlights confirmed otherwise.

"Harry James Potter," Yugi hissed, shocking both Harry and Mai, "you are not allowed to walk into his clutches. You belong with us, your friends. And we don't care how dangerous things get, we're going to fight alongside you no matter what!" He paused, seemed to realise what he was saying, shook his head slightly and sighed with bitter amusement, "And suddenly I realise why the others get so cross at me when I try this self-sacrificing thing."

"Huh?" Harry stared at Yugi, confused as all hell by the sudden mood switch, not to mention the small smirk spreading across Mai's face.

"I don't want you to go," Yugi told Harry, who had understood that part, "but if you want to go back to England to face Voldemort, I want to go too."

"As will the rest of the Clan," Mai added.

"You don't understand!" Harry protested. "He'll destroy anyone who tries to stand against him!"

"I understand perfectly well." Yugi replied. "Remember Marik?"

Harry remembered the stories about the first Battle City well. Marik's actions had been bad enough to leave Yugi with nightmares for over a year after dealing with him. Like Voldemort, Marik had been stronger than his intended target, he had slowly picked away at the support structure around Yugi, until the Pharaoh had become frightened that anyone who stood with him would be killed. Not only that, but Marik had come dangerously close to total success on a number of occasions. "Yeah, I remember."

"We're stronger as a team, we were before the ritual and we certainly are now. We can't face these sorts of enemies alone. We need our friends," said Yugi adamantly, "and we'll follow you into danger no matter what."

"Even if I say no, you're going to follow me, aren't you?" Harry asked ruefully.

"I'm not allowed to head out to battle alone," Yugi shrugged, his tone slightly teasing, "so neither are you."

"This is a bad idea," Harry warned him, "you'll all be safer if I'm not around."

"That's not true," Yugi insisted. He had felt much the same way multiple times, and it had taken a lot of work on his friends' part to knock some sense into him. "We've irritated Voldemort. Remember? He's sworn to kill me too. You're just his first priority."

"Because of that bloody prophecy," Harry hissed, annoyed.

"No matter what it says, we're going to be by your side until the end," Yugi informed Harry, his tone brooking no argument, "even if we have to come to England to find you."

"Then I guess I'd better stay," Harry sighed, "if only so we can come up with a..." His stomach grumbled, causing him to pause and Yugi to start chuckling.

"What is it with you super-powered heroes and your lack of eating?" said Mai. "Come on, you two, kitchen. Now."

"I'm not a super-powered hero," grumbled Harry as Yugi herded him out of the room.

"Can you use a Millennium Item and do you have an enemy who wants you dead?" Mai asked, leading the way.

"Yes?" Harry asked, confused yet again.

"Then you're a super-powered hero." Mai snorted. "Now keep up."


	12. Moving Forward

"...They're still here, for now at least. The Ministry didn't know what to do with...them," Mai trailed off as she reached the kitchen with Harry and Yugi in tow, only to find a pair of young men debating the merits and disadvantages of certain pyro-type monsters over others while chowing down on what smelled like freshly baked cookies.

"Yo," said one of them with a wave of his hand. He was short, with messy brunette hair and green eyes. His jacket declared him as, 'Tate.' Three monster cards were in his hand.

"Cookie?" the other offered with a grin. He was tidier in his appearance, with blonde hair and blue eyes. He was, 'Lyle,' according to his own jacket's nametag. "They're like, the best cookies ever."

Yugi's stomach growled in response. The pair chuckled and budged up, making room at the table for the trio. Harry and Yugi shot in the door and plonked themselves down on stools. Mai, however, was about to follow them into the comfortably warm side-room that led onto the baking hot kitchens when she spotted the small, humanoid creatures of about two feet tall, with long pointy ears working the kitchens. "What is that?"

"Apparently they're called House Elves," Lyle answered her, still grinning, "they're the best cooks ever."

Harry sensed confusion rolling over the link from Yugi and noted that his light link partner was shifting so he could see into the kitchen proper. "Take it Pegasus didn't have any here during Duellist Kingdom?" Harry asked, curious himself.

"Not that we saw," Yugi shook his head, spotting a House Elf who scurried out of sight as fast as possible, "but then we didn't know there were House Elves in school until fourth year."

"You were a little preoccupied the last time you were here," Mai agreed, a little weirded out by the thought of sentient creatures serving them. "Are they servants? With wages and things?"

"Oooh! Carnelian explained this one," Tate spoke up before Harry or Yugi could answer her, "she didn't like the idea of servants either. So Alyss made her come and talk to the House Elves."

"And?" Mai asked, still uncertain how she felt about the fact that the members of DuelDMU who had aided them in the battle at the shop were still here on the island, since the Clan was a pretty insular group and none of them had met the DuelDMU team before.

"They like working for families. They get insulted if you offer to pay them, take it as a sign they're not doing their job properly," Tate paused at the disbelief on Mai's face. "Ask them yourself if you don't believe me."

"Hermione doesn't like the idea of unpaid servants either," Harry spoke up, watching Mai's reaction as he did so, "I'm still undecided on the matter." Yugi leant against his link partner's shoulder, mentally shooing away memories that had arisen in Harry's mind of the way the Dursleys had treated him and offering reassurance that he wanted Harry around as a friend, not a servant.

"We have a question," Lyle half-asked, looking between the pair with an expression that informed them that he'd just worked something out.

"Oh?" returned Harry.

"Since when were you two dating?" Tate asked, and the reaction amused him greatly. Yugi spluttered and backed off at speed, falling off of his chair, while Harry went bright red and gave Tate a rather impressive death glare.

"Yugi and I are _not_ dating!" Harry snarled, turning to his link partner and helping him up, easily able to sense Yami's amusement in the background, alongside Yugi's embarrassment and shock.

"Even if-" Yugi spluttered, pointing to Harry. "He's fifteen!"

"But you're only like, what? Sixteen yourself?" Tate asked, defending his curiosity. "It's not that weird."

"I'm twenty-three," Yugi sighed, his exasperation obvious.

"He's just that short," Mai added. Yugi shot her a glare that clearly stated, _'don't encourage them.'_

"If Yugi were sixteen, he'd have been six when he first started playing Duel Monsters." This latest speaker was a young woman with bushy, brunette hair reaching halfway down her back. Her brown eyes were sharp and glimmered with a curiosity of their own. She looked as if she could have been related to Hermione, entered the side room, slumping down on a spare chair and jotting down a couple of notes on her pad of paper. "He started Duelling about the same time I started writing Digital Duellist."

"Hi," said Yugi, nodding his head, "it's been awhile."

"Yugi-san," DMG returned the gesture, smiling sadly, "I'm sorry to hear about your family. Your grandfather was a great man."

"Thank you." Harry felt Yugi mentally withdraw a little at her offering of sympathy, her sadness for the Pharaoh bringing up Yugi's own sorrow, which he was trying to push aside in order to interact with the world around him once again. Any conversation was stopped by a sudden chiming sound, which rang from a bell on the wall began to swing. There was a Japanese flag above it.

" _Uhhh._ What does that mean?" DMG asked.

"It means," one of the House Elves informed them, looking to Yugi as he did so, "that Master Yugi sir has a visitor."

* * *

"Kaiba-Shacho, there's an Ishtar Marik demanding to see you?"

Kaiba grimaced at his 'phone. He had been expecting the Ishtars to show up at some point, especially after he had been forced to quash the rumours of Yugi's death, which had been prompted by the sight of unconscious form being rushed away from the ruins of the game shop. He had also, however, been expecting the Ishtars to show up a week ago instead of now, and he was rather busy. "Tell him I'm busy and that he should make an appointment like everyone else," he said into the receiver.

"I tried that. I also tried having him evicted from the building when he got loud," the secretary sounded put upon. "It didn't stick."

Kaiba toyed with the idea of calling upon the magical security forces to deal with his problem. Marik was no friend of his, and while Yugi had forgiven him after his so-called change of heart, Seto had done no such thing. He had not forgotten that it had been the supposedly, 'nice,' Marik that had arranged Mokuba's kidnapping, tried to kill him and endangered the lives of others. Still, he supposed someone should reassure the Ishtars that their precious Pharaoh was still in the realm of the living, even if it would have been much more amusing to let them believe they were going to have to wait another five thousand years to send Atem on for at least a little while longer.

"Send him to meeting room 3," Kaiba decided finally, making sure not to mention that it was going to be at least another hour before he could spare the time to deal with anything that was not directly related to his company. Kaiba Corp. had been dealt yet another blow from the attack on the city and the destruction of his home. He had lost many of the colleagues who had been home from work that fateful Saturday afternoon. Shockingly, Marik was still waiting two hours later when he finally made it downstairs. Not so shockingly, Marik was in a foul mood.

"What kept you?" Marik scowled. "I've been waiting for hours."

"You're lucky I came at all," Kaiba shot back, "some of us have a legitimate company to run while others run around with bands of low-life thieves."

Marik let out a low growl at the jab. "I disbanded the Rare Hunters years ago," he said. "What they do now is no concern of mine. Where's Yugi?"

"Can't tell you." It was the first time that Kaiba had been glad for the geis he had signed willingly after reading over all of the small print. It allowed him to be perfectly honest and still get away with pushing Marik's buttons.

"What do you mean you can't tell me?" Marik glowered at him.

"I can't tell you," Kaiba replied with absolute calm. He had needed this for weeks. He had not been able to snark at his staff, it was bad for business and he refused to take out his mood on his little brother, but Marik was a perfectly legitimate target. "And considering your past interactions with him, I wouldn't even if I could."

"I haven't tried to kill Yugi in years!" Marik protested, then realised how that sounded and shut up. At least for a moment before, "It's not like you can talk."

Kaiba's expression turned black. He knew Marik had to be referencing, 'Death T.' rather than his more recent actions against Yugi. Actions he still knew had been necessary, even if he had yet to forgive himself for having to take them. "What do you want, Marik?"

Marik smirked. He had struck a nerve. "The Pharaoh's back in the Puzzle."

"The former Pharaoh is back in the Puzzle," Kaiba corrected him, "the new one's still grieving." Not that Kaiba had been to see him yet. It was not that he feared Atem's retribution for putting Yugi in danger, but because he had yet to accept Yugi's final words to him before the Pharaoh had slipped into unconsciousness and the Shabti had taken him further into the labyrinth.

" _I knew,"_ _Yugi's smile was sad and showed the truth behind the words, "that if it ever came to Mokuba or us, we wouldn't stand a chance."_

" _Yugi..." Seto trailed off, unable to ask for forgiveness when he_ needed _to do this to protect Mokuba, but knowing that without it, he would not be able to sleep easy. Not after everything Yugi had done for him over the years._

" _I forgave you before we even stepped down here."_

"I need to see them," Marik derailed Kaiba's train of thought.

"Why?" Kaiba growled. "Atem made his choice clear when he had the tablets brought to Domino. He doesn't intend to leave."

"He didn't. But you have to understand, if he doesn't go and Yugi gets killed too, it'll be five thousand years before they get another chance to open the Gates," pleaded Marik. "The Pharaoh gave up his rights to the Afterlife when he chose to rend his soul in two. They can't move on until the Ceremonial Duel has been completed and the sooner that happens, the better for both of them." He scowled slightly, "Unless you want Yami to be locked back in the Shadows and Yugi to go through yet another cycle of reincarnation?"

"I can't tell you where they are," Kaiba snapped back at him, "so if you want to talk to them that badly, you need to talk to the Ministry of Magic."

"And how do I find that?" Marik felt he was finally getting somewhere.

"If you haven't been approached by them, I can't tell you that either," said Kaiba, enjoying watching Marik turn three different shades of purple as he tried his hardest not to explode spectacularly.

"Kaiba," Marik let out a low growl, "you don't understand the danger..."

"I understand it perfectly well," Kaiba retorted, "but I can't tell you what you need to know." He paused, an evil thought crossing his mind as he pressed a button under his desk. "But I do know how to help you find out."

"How?" Marik had just time to ask before he was swarmed by magical security.

* * *

Hermione slumped at a spare table in the dining hall, dropping a pile of notebooks onto it with a hefty thud, startling the other girl in the room, who appeared to be dismantling something that looked like a modified Duel Disk. "Hi." She waved at the girl, whose black, white and pink hair was pinned up in a way that reminded Hermione of liquorice allsorts, as she opened up her laptop.

"Yo," the girl grumbled back, still fighting with a tiny screw.

Hermione let out a soft chuckle, distracting herself from the fact she had been about to work on her book of Clan History, and tilted her head curiously at the girl. She could not remember meeting her before. "Need a hand?"

"No," the mechanically inclined Shadow-Touched Duellist shook her head, "just a way to smack my past self upside the head."

"Oh?" Hermione's curiosity continued to win over her urge to go over her notes. "I know that feeling. Any reason in particular?"

"Because I used damn micro-screws to hide panel lines and now when I want to take them out they won't come," the girl sulked, ignoring a strange, snoring sound from under her chair. Hermione looked to see what the noise was coming from, only to find there was a plushy sheep fast asleep beneath the table, oblivious to its Duellist's ranting.

"Sorry," Hermione apologised when she sat up, trying to remember why a plushy sheep sounded familiar, "I'm not very technically minded, you'd be better off asking Mokuba for help there. I'm better on the magic front." She paused for a moment as it hit her. "You're one of the DuelDMU'ers aren't you? The one who saved Ya...Yugi? When the Death Eaters attacked?"

"Yes I'm with them," the girl nodded with a frown, "and no, I can't ask Mokuba, I wanted these to be a surprise... but it's wrong."

"Thank you for helping Yugi," Hermione said, and briefly wondered if the girl minded all the interruptions. She offered her hand. "I'm Hermione."

"Everyone calls me Sweetybell," the girl replied, accepting the gesture, "nice to meet you."

"Who's the surprise for?" Hermione asked curiously. "If you don't mind my asking, that is. I'm sure they'd love it as it is."

Sweetybell shook her head, sorrow crossing her features. "The guy I was going to give it to," she said, "he's not around anymore."

"Oh," Hermione got it, and her shoulders sank. "I'm sorry. I've lost a few friends recently myself, it's never easy." There was silence for a minute or so, as Hermione tried to concentrate on her book and found herself staring at a blank page as the last couple of months plagued her mind. She turned to the DuelDMU'er. "If you need to talk, I'm not going anywhere for awhile."

"Same for you," Sweetybell offered, "I asked an elf to find me a small room for a workspace, but until that happens I'll be right here."

"How you finding the whole, 'magic-is-real,' thing?" It was the nonchalant way the DuelDMU member spoke that caused Hermione's curiosity. "I remember I had a hard time believing it when I first found out. Always thought I'd be a scientist, you know?"

"Honestly? I really just want to see how I can use it in my work," the mechanic gave her a shy grin, and Hermione chuckled.

"Well if you're working on things like Duel Disks, then it'll probably make a huge difference, there's a theory going around that part of the reason the Duel Disks make things so real is because Kaiba's at the helm of the project and he's Shadow-Touched." She stopped, remembering something. "What are you studying? I mean you're part of a university club right? So you're a student?"

"Yeah," Sweety nodded, "programing and mechanical engineering. I also occasionally sneak in the back of the art lectures."

"Wow," Hermione said, and looked impressed, "looks like you've learnt a lot. I couldn't do what you're doing. Wouldn't even know where to start." She admitted it, but she did not like doing it. It reminded her too much of the concerns she had had about going to Hogwarts in the first place. It mostly stemmed from the fact that there were no muggle classes, only the ones that would get her by in the magical world.

"I started by dismantling my toys and putting them back together... _aha!_ " she crowed as she finally won the fight with the screw and started disassembling and sorting the parts of the custom-designed Duel Disk.

Hermione watched her for awhile, thinking about her friends and how much they would want something as well-built, good-looking and suited to them as the one Sweetybell was dismantling would have been for whoever it was meant for. "Can you use those parts in another disk," she asked curiously, "or is it a one-time thing?"

"No, they can be cleaned and recycled," the other girl replied, thinking about it as she examined the latest piece to come off, "since I didn't crack or strip anything during the dismantling."

"Could I order one for a friend?" Hermione asked, thinking that it would probably cost her a bomb, but Yugi could use something to lift his mood even slightly. "He needs a pick-me-up right about now."

"Sure," Sweetybell said with a nod. She had been looking for something to do while they were stuck on the island, something difficult that would get her mind off everything that was going on. "Let's come up with what you want and I'll quote you for the materials." She gave Hermione a curious look, "Who's the friend?"

"Well..." Hermione trailed off, a little embarrassed by the question, "I want to order one for Yugi. He's been through so much recently and I was hoping that if he got one of those for himself, it might cheer him up a bit." She paused and watched in shock as the student pulled out a custom Duel Disk from under the table, one that was swirling purple and black at the base layer, with gold highlighting the card sections and running around the edge of the dome, on top of which were hieroglyphs spelling out, _'Yugi Mutou.'_ The dome itself was purple, with silver, twinkling glitter that was spread out enough to remind Hermione of stars, but disappeared as the purple faded through red into yellow, not dissimilar to the colours on the robes of Yugi's Sunset Magician.

" _Oh,_ wow," Hermione stared in awe at the work, "that's perfect." She blinked and glanced up at Sweetybell. "Can you see the future," she asked, "or are you just that fast?"

"Alyss, you know her as Dinah, was going to be in a tournament with him down the road," replied the student, and she pulled out a pure white, custom Duel Disk. The card readers had been redesigned to resemble the wings of a Blue-Eyes White Dragon. The dragon's head was positioned in place of the graveyard slot, while its tail was framed to wrap around the Duellist's arm as a means of balancing the weight properly. "So I made three for her to take... one for Kaiba and both of the Mutou's."

Hermione suddenly understood who the Duel Disk that Sweetybell had been dismantling was for. Her mood shifted towards grief again, even as she reminded herself that Yami was not truly gone, but simply back in his Puzzle. "So the disk you were dismantling was Yami's," she said, and let out a soft, sad sigh, "he would have loved it too."

"Well, you can have the one I was going to give to Yugi for free and I'll make any changes you want," Sweetybell offered. "No charge. If it helps him that'll be good enough."

"Are you sure?" Hermione looked shocked. "But you must have put so much work into it…"

"Like I said. If it helps, I'll be happy."

* * *

"Mutou-San," the visitor, the Speaker for Magical Japan, bowed to Yugi the very moment he emerged from the fireplace. "I am glad to see you're well."

"Speaker Saitou," Yugi said and returned the gesture. Truth be told, he was not feeling up to this, but knew that it would not pay to be rude to the man who had had their backs so far. Regardless, he was grateful that Atem had taken spirit form and stood at his side. "I'm feeling much better, thank you. Can I help at all?"

The Japanese Minster of Magic bowed to Yami, who nodded back, then smiled at Yugi a little ruefully, "Actually I have something that belongs to your family that I feel should be returned to you."

Yugi felt Atem's mind snap to attention, his focus now purely on Minister Saitou. When the former Pharaoh's body had been released for burial, his deck had been missing. Yugi's friends had commented on it, concerned that the ridiculously powerful God monsters within it would fall into the wrong hands, but Yugi had been too lost in his shock and grief to even think about the missing God cards until this moment.

The Speaker for Magical Japan pulled something carefully, almost reverently, out of his coat pocket. The sight of it made Yugi's breath catch for a moment. Even from this distance, he could see that the edges of the cards within the deck holster were damaged and that was probably only the start of the troubles.

"We did try and dry them out," Saitou explained. "We figured that if we couldn't return your brother, whole and sound, we should at least try and return these but..." He handed the holster over and Yugi carefully opened it, anxiety etched across every centimetre of his being as he cautiously drew the cards from their resting place.

Duel Monsters cards were ridiculously hardy things, especially the ones that were tied to a Duellist's heart, but they were cards nonetheless. The leather holster had done its best to keep out the water, unfortunately they had been submerged for far too long and most of the cards that Yugi and Atem had spent years collecting and playing with were ruined. The only ones that seemed like they might still be playable, if only in friendly duels, not tournaments where someone could complain about marked cards, were the few that had been in the very centre of the deck. Thankfully, the Dark Magician, the one that had belonged in his grandfather's deck before it had been given to him, was among the survivors. Yugi was not sure what he would have done if he was destroyed. The God monsters too were still at least recognisable, as was the Dark Magician Girl.

' _Yugi, may I?'_ Yugi relinquished control easily. Atem found himself surprised afresh at his hikari's willingness to just hand over his body to an ancient spirit without even asking what he was going to do while using it. Atem drew Yugi's wand and tapped it against the deck, "Reparo."

The deck glowed for a moment, then returned to it ruined state.

"We tried that, but not one of the repair spells took," Saitou apologised. "Even the strongest ones seemed to just slide off. I don't think there's enough of them left for it to work."

Atem stared at the pile of wrecked cards in his hand. That was it, then. His deck was gone, just as his physical form and everything else that had been a part of him was gone. Everything that had belonged to, 'Yami Mutou,' was destroyed or missing, leaving behind just the spirit who had claimed the name.

His second mortal life had been the first thing to go. His wand and his Duel Disk had been damaged beyond repair in the same flood that had claimed his life, then everything he had not been carrying that day had been destroyed in the fires that consumed the Game Shop and the mansion, and now this. Once again, all he was left with was a room and a maze, generated by a Puzzle he had not created and stored in a mind that was not his.

He felt Yugi nudge him, sending reassurance down the link, but he was in no mood for it, not even from his precious hikari. Instead, he re-entered the Puzzle, shoving Yugi into control with such force that he physically staggered. The Speaker steadied Yugi, who regained his footing easily, old instincts kicking in although he had not shared his body with another in years. "Sorry," Yugi apologised for his darker self.

"I understand it's a shock," said Saitou, waving it off and watching Yugi closely, "is there anything we can do to help?"

Yugi tried to prod Atem, only to find he had shut his door for the first time in over a year. He frowned slightly. "I'm not sure," he admitted, "unless you have a time machine?" It was a weak joke, but it made the minister smile regardless. "Was there something else?"

"Actually, yes," said Saitou with a nod of his head, "is there somewhere we can sit and talk in privacy?"

"Why?" asked Yugi, worried as he ushered the minister out of the room and towards another, making a note to ask the nearest House Elf to bring them some tea if they were not too busy.

"There's a lot we need to discuss Mutou-san," Saitou explained, "you see I need your help, and I believe that we can be of mutual assistance to each other."

"Oh?" Yugi questioned, curious now.

"Well, you see..."

* * *

"For the record Tristan, _ow!_ " Joey complained as the pair of them headed for the kitchens, or at least where they thought the kitchens were. He was nursing a black eye. "You still pack a mean right hook!"

"Yeah, well you fight like a girl," Tristan prodded back, sporting a rather spectacular bruise on his right cheek, "anyone would think you've had it easy at this school of yours."

"You have any idea how hard it is to get into a decent fight when you're surrounded by kids? Some of which are half your age?" Joey complained. Tristan chuckled. " _Ah_ , shut up."

Pleased to see Joey at least bantering with him again, even if it was easy to see that the grief was still just under the surface, Tristan budged his friend, grinning as he did so. "Yeah, well now you'll have a proper sparring partner instead of... _oof!_ " Tristan bounced off something invisible, which let out a startled yelp of its own before landing hard on its rear end. There was a flap of strange fabric, and Harry appeared, dishevelled and wrapped in a broad cloak. Tristan stared, then made a confused sound, as Joey offered the teen a hand to his feet.

"Invisibility cloak," Joey explained, glancing at Tristan, "very useful." He returned his attention to Harry, "So where you sneaking off to again?"

"Not sneaking off," Harry promised, "sneaking in. The Speaker arrived about ten minutes ago and I was going to try to get into the meeting."

"The Speaker? From Japan? Why didn't Yuge tell us?" Joey gaped, brushing himself off and grimacing slightly at the dirt on his hands from his earlier tussle. "Wait, Yuge's on his own with the guy? I thought we agreed Yuge wasn't allowed to be on his own any more, he gets into too much trouble."

"Yugi didn't get much warning," Harry explained, "and he didn't come with anyone. Besides, Yugi had the Puzzle on him..."

"Which means he took Yami in with him," said Joey, and he relaxed slightly. True, there still existed the possibility that Yugi could wind up hurt even with Yami around, but between the pair of them there were not many situations they could not get themselves out of, especially with only one opponent. Not that the Speaker for Magical Japan was an opponent, at least Joey hoped not, but too many years of people stabbing the group in the back had made him a little paranoid.

"Anyway, I was going to try and find out what's going on, since Yugi's distracted and Yami's refusing to open the door to his Soul Room for some reason," said Harry, picking up his invisibility cloak and gesturing to the door just behind Tristan, "but the door's shut, so I'll need another way in."

"You do realise that you don't need to walk around in the corridors with the cloak, right?" Joey said, giving him a teasing poke, all the time wondering why Yami, who had been the one who maintained communication with everyone else while Yugi had shut down, would refuse to talk, "I mean it's literally just us, DuelDMU and the Speaker here. Well, not including the House Elves."

"Force of habit," Harry sheepishly admitted.

"You know, you could just do this," Tristan knocked on the door and then shoved Joey up the corridor past Harry and around the corner, so that by the time Yugi opened it and spotted Harry on the other side, they were out of sight.

"That was mean," said Joey, unable to hide his grin. It reminded him so much of their time before they came to Hogwarts. All those times when Tristan would counter his ridiculous and overly dramatic or confrontational plans with a far more practical, safer alternative.

"Maybe, but it worked," Tristan pointed out, noting that that was Joey's first real grin since Voldemort had attacked Domino. Seeing his old friend finally rising out of his slump was satisfying, but it also made him wonder who had been able to do the same for Yugi, at least enough for him to be functioning again.

"True," Joey allowed. "Hey, have you seen the Weasleys? I still haven't thanked them for bringing the DuelDMU'ers and saving our rears."

"I saw the twins sneaking off somewhere, probably outside," said Tristan, listing off his fingers, "the girl was looking for Mokuba and the boy about Harry's age was heading for the kitchens, but that was before I kicked your ass, so..."

"I let you win!" Joey protested, sulking because Tristan's assessment of their fight was, in spite of his indignation, quite accurate.

"Oh really?" Tristan snorted.

"Yeah and I'll prove it next time." Joey pounded his right fist into his left palm, "but first, lunch."

* * *

"You want to what!?"

"I know it's crazy," Sirius admitted, "but I need to find out what that prophecy says and Dumbledore refuses to share."

"But breaking into the Department of Mysteries? You do realise that's insane right?" Remus demanded. "We're already breaking the law by hovering around to watch out for potential Death Eaters trying to steal it. If we get _caught_..."

"You think I don't know the consequences?" Sirius snarled back, glad that they had retreated to one of the dark and lonely corners of the house to have this conversation. "That I _want_ to end up back in Azkaban?"

"No but," Remus faltered under his friend's gaze, "you're going to do it anyway, aren't you?"

"I promised Harry that I would find out what it is," Sirius replied. Remus could tell he was deadly serious, steely determination written all over his features. "I won't let him down again."

"Sirius, you haven't," Remus tried to reassure him, but Sirius interrupted.

"Yes, I have. I promised James and Lily that I would look after him if anything happened to them. Instead I went after Wormtail and he got left with those...those muggles!" Sirius snapped. "Because I wasn't there when I should've been, he's gone and found himself a family in another country and..." He let out a frustrated snarl and sat down on the nearest available seat.

"Sirius..."

"You want to know what kept me sane during my time in Azkaban?" Sirius asked with his face in his hands. "I kept thinking that I was innocent and that once I was free and clear Harry could live with me and we'd be a family, like we should have been before the Dark Lord wrecked everything. Now it turns out he doesn't need me. He has a family. One he picked for himself."

"He still wants you around," Remus reminded him, "he's contacted you every night since you went your separate ways."

"I know," Sirius sighed, "but we talk more now than we did when we were travelling across Europe together. I just don't know what to say to him when I see him in person. He's too like James, but at the same time, he's not James at all. He's..."

"Harry," Remus said gently. He had suffered a similar issue when he had first seen Harry, though he had managed to separate him from the memory of his father much faster than it seemed Sirius could. The dog animagus did not say anything for a while, just nodded slowly, taking a deep breath as he did so. "Do you have a plan?"

"Not really," Sirius admitted, "bar getting myself on the rota to guard the door to the Department of Mysteries and going from there."

"We used to come up with better plans for sneaking in and out of places when were Harry's age," Remus retorted, "and you've had how long? You're slowing down in your old age." The werewolf teased his friend and was rewarded with an outraged scowl.

"Old? Look who's talking!" Sirius shot back. "I'm sure there's grey in your fur now!" He indicated the hair on top of Remus's head which was, indeed, going silvery-grey in places.

"Pots and kettles, Black," Remus snarked back, enjoying the banter and the signs that beneath all the damage that Azkaban had inflicted on his friend, the old Sirius was still there just below the surface.

"I would have you know I look distinguished with a little grey in my hair," said Sirius, snootily.

"Who told you that? Because I think they need their eyes tested."

Sirius let out an amused but irritable growl and attempted a pounce. The pair's play-fighting stopped only when Molly Weasley slammed open the door, wand drawn, and the pair of them were startled back into comparatively good behaviour.

" _Oh_ ," the Weasley matriarch looked a little lost, "it's just you two."

"Sorry, Molly," Remus said, then he quickly righted himself and dusted off his jacket.

"No. No. It's just I was hoping..."

The two of them knew exactly what she was hoping. Molly had been taken by surprise when her children had just taken off without the slightest warning. She was used to Fred and George defying her in small ways, but she had never had the entire brood do something she had made them promise not to do before. For all of them to just up and leave at the same time, vanishing from inside the safe house and going to pit themselves against the Dark Lord after she had specifically told them not to, had thrown her completely.

She had ranted and raved the first couple of days away, when it had become obvious that no matter how much she pressed, she was not going to find out the location of her children, and then she had started investigating every loud noise, hoping it was a sign of their return. So far, no luck.

"I'll let you know if any of them pass on a message through Harry," Sirius renewed his promise, not that he had had any messages from the Weasley children yet bar, _'we're fine,'_ and, _'you should see the beaches.'_ Molly just nodded and shut the door again, leaving the pair behind, their formerly light-hearted mood spoiled.

"So...you in or out?" Sirius asked, getting to his feet. "Because if the Order's guarding the Department of Mysteries, it's not hard to guess that Voldemort wants the prophecy too, and if he gets it before Harry does, well..."

"In," Remus interrupted. "You're not the only one with a debt to pay to the cub. I didn't even try to make contact with him until his third year and didn't have any idea of how bad his home life was until I overheard the Clan discussing things on the train. If I can help him now, I will."

"In that case, my fellow Marauder," Sirius grinned wickedly, "we have a scheme to hatch."

* * *

"So you see why I need your help?" Saitou asked the Pharaoh, watching him and his link partner closely as the pair pondered over his words. He had only wanted to approach Mutou-san, who was known for helping anyone who asked, even enemies. When Potter-san had knocked on the door, however Mutou-san had informed him that he, _'didn't keep secrets from his partners anymore.'_

"Let me see if I've got this right," Yugi said slowly, his mind racing over the facts and figures he had been given at a speed that Harry had great difficulty keeping up with. "Thanks to Voldemort, there's a quite considerable anti-wizard movement within Domino. There's also a strong feeling amongst the public that we," he indicated himself and Harry, but Saitou assumed he meant the Court, "should be doing more to prevent something like that happening again since it was obviously us they were after."

"That's correct," Saitou nodded.

"Not only that, but people, including some within the Diet, are of the opinion that we should be aiding the police in dealing with the rogue Shadow-Touched that have emerged since Shadowmorn," Yugi continued, "and there is a group of about thirty Shadow-Touched, twelve of them below the age of fifteen, who recently got sent your way by the French magical embassy by way of the English muggle one?"

"Indeed," Saitou nodded again.

"And you want us, me, to take them in because there's no where safe to host them since they're targets, just as we are and your men don't feel comfortable around them."

"How?" Saitou blinked, having not mentioned anything about the feelings of his Shiragiku.

"It's not hard to guess," Yugi smiled, slightly deprecatorily, "most people don't feel comfortable around people with Shadow magic. Not once they know what it can do."

"No offense intended towards you, but we do have the track records of your other self and the other item-holders to go on. Insanity, death and soul-stealing are not exactly reassuring aspects of your power-set." Saitou pointed out.

"No, I know," Yugi grimaced slightly. He was aware of just how frightening Yami truly was. "I'm willing to take them in, the castle has plenty of room, but we're going to need supplies. Somehow, I doubt that the gardens are capable of feeding everyone. The House Elves are good, but I don't know if they're that good and we'll need things besides food."

"We can provide that," said Saitou. "That's not a problem."

"I'm not sure what you want us to do about the rest, though," said Yugi. "I want to help, but you insisted that we to go into hiding in the first place, so..."

"All I want regarding these other issues, is a promise that you'll agree to work with our Shiragiku in the future if we need assistance," replied Saitou, "and that you'll let us borrow some of your people for training purposes."

"In exchange for what?" Saitou jumped a mile when Atem spoke, appearing in spirit form beside Yugi. His gaze was fixed sharply on the Speaker. "What do we get out of turning ourselves into a police force for you?"

"I've been authorised," Saitou replied, with a small grin, having wondered who would get it first, "to offer you full assistance in dealing with Voldemort. Not only that but full diplomatic immunity when you travel to other countries. Not only for you, but for recognised members of the Inner Circle of your Court."

"Why?" asked Harry.

"Because Voldemort may have been aiming at you, but he attacked us, too. And we won't let it happen again. We don't take kindly to foreign Dark Lords attacking our soil," Saitou growled, his expression black, "not only that but we believe that it's likely that once other countries work out we have a task force assembled from the only people who truly know how Shadow magic works, your help will be requested elsewhere and we'd rather you didn't end up in jail on trumped up charges by some bitter politician."

"Makes sense," Yami allowed, looking at Yugi, who realised that his counterpart was silently passing judgement of the offer unto him, "although it sounds like you're just helping yourselves again."

"I cannot guarantee what else we could offer at this time, but should the need arise, I'm certain that we could provide building materials for homes and shelters for any other refugees you bring to the island," said Saitou, long-windedly sweetening the deal. "Not only that, but England's Minister of Magic is willing to hand over the prophecy concerning Potter-san in exchange for your assistance."

Harry's back stiffened. Beside him, Yugi and Yami were intrigued, but also wary.

"Can you guarantee that we'll receive the prophecy?" Yami asked, in a cautious tone of voice. "Past experience has removed any trust we might have towards the British Ministry."

"We have been informed that Potter-san will have to retrieve it," Saitou admitted, "since only he or Voldemort can remove it from its resting place, but we would be willing to send a team to escort you in order to ensure your safety."

Yami let out a sharp, irritated hiss, and Harry noted that Yugi was also looking ill-amused. It was frustrating. So close, and yet so far. Harry leant against the nearest chair and growled quietly in the back of his throat, much less detectable than the Pharaoh's overt, animalistic reaction.

"We were just as unhappy as you are," Saitou assured them, "especially after the young man we took into custody earlier today seemed to think that it was essential that you two go to Egypt and commit ritual suicide." He gestured towards Yugi and Yami, who stared at him for a moment before realisation settled in. They both winced. "Between him and the English Ministry thinking we would be stupid enough to give them your location and then telling us that, it's been a bit of a rough day in the office."

"You have Marik in custody?" Yugi asked, cringing slightly as he imagined the fallout.

"Ishtar Marik? Yes, he was arrested after threatening Kaiba Seto," said Saitou, gravely.

"Are you sure no one else can get to the prophecy?" asked Yami. He was tempted to make an embittered comment about Kaiba deserving it, but one look for Yugi killed it in his throat.

"Not that we're aware of," said Saitou, "although the likelihood of them passing on all this information is slim to none."

"Note to self, ask Hermione," Yugi murmured, and from the corner of his eye caught Yami and Harry nodding in unison. "There's a lot to think about, Saitou-san. Can you come back in a few hours, once I've had a chance to think this over?"

"Of course. I would be disappointed if you didn't give this the consideration it requires," replied Saitou, picking up the few things he had shared. "I'll be back first thing tomorrow morning."


	13. Small Details

"Miss Gardener, thank you for your time," the black-suited government goon said with the slightest nod of his head. "We just need a few moments, then you can be on your way."

Tea tried not to feel like she had been kidnapped out of class as she settled on the edge of a desk. "I have an important meeting," she complained, not looking forward to travelling by Duel Monster to get to it, "so could we make this fast?"

"Certainly." Tea looked up. A woman entered the room, pulled her sunglasses off and gave Tea a sharp smile. "My name's Adriana Gunner," she said, "I'm with the American Ministry."

"Nice to meet you, Miss Gunner," Tea replied, instinctively tensing up as she did. She remembered the fiasco created by the American Ministry of Magic just the previous summer.

"Mrs," Adriana corrected automatically. "We need to talk to you about your, 'family.' Your, 'brothers,' made a huge mess."

"It wasn't their fault," Tea defended them without even thinking. "Bakura's been trying for years to do what he did and no one, no one at all, has ever offered us assistance. Yugi's saved the world so many times that I've lost count and we've always had to stand alone because no one _bothered_ to help us. Even when we nearly died."

"Miss Gardener," the government agent tried the appeasing route, "I understand your anger. If I had been through what you and yours have been through without assistance, I would be cross too. However you have to understand that doesn't fix the situation that's now arisen."

"What do you mean?" Tea frowned.

"Your brother knows how to seal the Shadows and return the world to the way it should be," Adriana replied. "We need that information."

"And what do you want me to do?" Tea asked, bristling at the thought that someone would want to put someone else through what Yami had been, just because they did not like the new, 'normal.'

"We need you to set up a meeting, that's all."

Tea reached instinctively for her purse where her deck was, just awaiting her call as Adriana's comment set off her, 'trap,' warning bells.

"In exchange we would provide your tuition for your continued schooling, something I know is at threat with the death of your patron."

Tea grimaced. While she had not known that Pegasus was paying her tuition at the dance school she studied at until last year, it was true that with his demise, her fees were going to build up. She did not want to ask the new C.E.O. of Industrial Illusions for money after all. Not when he had more important things on his mind.

Still, if the Americans thought she would betray her brothers, they thought wrong.

"No one knows how to seal the Shadows again. Not even Yugi," Tea informed her, certain of that fact. It was not possible to know the very end of a ritual you had been the sacrifice for after all. "And I don't think Yugi's allowed to leave whatever safe-house the Ministry's set him up in."

"And yet you're going to him," Adriana smirked, as Tea stared at her in shock. "You honestly thought, Miss Gardener, that we would allow someone who was actively sought after by another magical government into the country without keeping tabs on them?"

"I won't be your lure," Tea warned her, reaching into her bag and relaxing slightly when she managed to get her hand on her deck, subtly fiddling with the deck holster to get a card out.

"Miss Gardener, to be quite frank we want to do this the peaceful way but the threat to every magical in the world is very real," said Adriana, gesturing behind her back to her colleague, who had already noticed Tea's actions. "If we do not undo the damage it could cause a new round of Salem Trials. We cannot allow that."

"My family have just suffered a heavy loss at the hands of what you would consider, 'normal,' magicals," Tea snapped back. "What those people did was neither subtle, nor was it productive to preventing the general public from panicking. And yet it's my family who are in the wrong? For something that isn't even their fault?"

"Miss Gardener, please take your hand out of your purse," the man who had been watching her carefully drew his pistol from its holster and aimed it at her.

"I'm not a terrorist," Tea said slowly, and cautiously removed her hand from her purse, letting go of the card she had drawn at the same time.

"No one said you were," Adriana replied, "but no one wants to risk you summoning something with the mood you're in."

"What're you going to do if I say no, I won't help?" Tea asked, still watching the gun warily.

"Then I'm afraid I'll be left with no choice but to have you arrested for obstructing the authorities," Adriana replied, "and then you most certainly wouldn't get to your meeting."

"Fine. I'll call him, but I won't make any promises."

* * *

"Hi."

Seto internally winced at the sound, but showed no outward signs of doing so, instead turning from his filing cabinet to glower at the speaker. "You know, some people would consider it rude to break into someone's office."

Yugi let out a nervous chuckle, looking sheepish. "Sorry," he said, "we had to sneak past the Ministry's guards to get here and I figured you probably wouldn't speak to me if I made an appointment."

Seto could not deny that Yugi had a point. Still, he raised an eyebrow, refusing to acknowledge it. "We?"

"Mokuba and Joey," Yugi explained, "and of course Ya..." He sighed, his hand resting gently on the Puzzle as he did so, "Atem."

"What do you want?" Seto asked, warily watching the young man who was pacing his office, half expecting his other self to make an appearance.

"The Japanese Ministry made me an offer. I want to bring it up to all the Clan," Yugi replied, still pacing the office, reminding Seto of himself when he was worked up over some project or another and unable to express his frustration in any other way.

"So?" Kaiba asked, acting unconcerned, although he was curious with regards to what exactly Yugi had been offered. "I believe Wheeler made his thoughts on my membership rather clear."

"You handed me over to the enemy," Yugi sighed, having had to talk the others round to him coming out here to talk to Kaiba in the first place. "Surely you expected them to be cross at you?"

Technically, Yugi had handed himself over, Seto had just lured him into the trap, but he did not mention those facts. Besides, the new Pharaoh understood why he had done what he had done, that was all that was important.

"I have a company to run, Yugi," said Seto.

"As do I," the Pharaoh reminded him. "I've been ignoring Industrial Illusions for too long already. However, this is important."

Kaiba just watched him resume pacing for a moment, waiting for the other man to work through his train of thought in his own time. He would not normally bother. Time was money after all, but Yugi would not have snuck past the Ministry guards and disturbed him at work if it was not of vital importance. He could afford to give him a little time.

"You're Clan, Seto, and this will affect all of us. They're willing to give diplomatic immunity to me and members of my inner circle," Yugi explained, stopping and turning to face the elder Kaiba brother, "as well as aid us against Voldemort."

"And this has what to do with me? I can't play your games anymore, Yugi. I can't afford to..."

"We're not going back to Hogwarts," Yugi interrupted. "You can't afford the time, I can't afford the time. There are too many people expecting us to do too much and to be quite frank even if there weren't, I wouldn't trust the English Ministry to not have us murdered in our sleep if we went back to their school."

"Paranoia from you?" Seto asked, looking Yugi over properly and finally developing an idea of the damage the last few months had yielded.

"Everyone has to grow up sometime," Yugi replied. He recognised Kaiba's understanding, and acknowledged it. That the deaths of his family and friends, along with the loss of the shield that had protected him for so long, his belief that even the bad guys had to fight fair and his faith that in the end he would be able to save everyone, had forced him to look at the world with a much different view.

Seto frowned slightly but did not comment on it. For the last couple of years he had been wondering how much more Yugi could see and go through before it changed him. Now he knew. "So what do you need from me?" he asked, changing the subject.

"I just want you at the Clan meeting later," Yugi replied, glad to go back to what he had come for. "If we go with the Speaker's offer it could change a lot. You don't have to offer any assistance if you don't want to or put yourself forward for anything but you might think of something that we haven't."

"All right," Seto allowed, relieved he was not expected to jump into whatever they were planning this time, "but I won't be available until five at the earliest, our time, not whatever time you're running on that island of yours."

"We can wait," Yugi promised. "The Speaker said he wouldn't be back till morning anyway."

Seto decided that was good. It would allow them to work and argue and plan late into the night if necessary. "You said Mokuba and the mutt are with you?" he asked.

"I really wouldn't call him that right now," Yugi warned him, "he's still ticked at you and, well..." He trailed off.

Seto sighed exasperatedly. Of course Wheeler was ticked at him. Pretty much the whole Clan would be. Never mind that he had been trying to protect his brother at the time, or that he had had a plan in mind. Admittedly one that involved setting an angry Atem on the prick who had had the audacity to kidnap and possess his little brother, but a plan none the less.

Still, this was no different from how it had been when he had first become friends with Yugi and his group of lunatics. Only Yugi had trusted him back then too, a position that he had deserved considering everything he had done to the group. It had taken years to gain the trust of certain members of the group, a trust that he had not always wanted and now no longer had.

"Your brother's in his office. He said he needed to come in to get some of the jobs done that he can't work on while away from the building's secure network," Yugi informed him. "Joey's hovering outside the door." He indicated the door to the outer office where his and Mokuba's secretaries worked.

"I'm surprised he felt safe enough to leave you alone with me," Seto snorted. Magic flowed and Seto grimaced as he felt a tingling all along his nerve-endings. The air in the office seemed to darken slightly as the changes that he had not seen in going on five years occurred. "Atem," he murmured, with a nod to the former Pharaoh.

"Serenity was at risk as well," said Atem, "once he remembered that little fact he was a bit more understanding."

"But he's still cross," Kaiba pointed out, "not that it bothers me."

Atem hid his smirk well. Seto may claim that he did not need them, and that he would not miss them if they went away and never came back, but he could see through that easily. Seto had been the one to regularly seek them out during the Goblet issues after all, almost as much as they had him.

"He's ticked at everyone right now. You, me, Yugi, Neos, Voldemort, even himself" said the Pharaoh. "You should know by now that it takes ages for Joey to calm down after a major event, and this..."

Seto understood clearly. The last couple of months were the worst that the Clan had ever been through. They had been on a losing streak ever since Voldemort had had Kari killed, they still had not managed to regain their footing and there was nothing in their experience that could match up to the losses they had taken. Still, that did not explain why Atem had taken over. There was obviously something on that the ex-Pharaoh wanted to get off his chest.

"Is there something _you_ want?" Seto asked, amused at the way Atem's back stiffened at the question. "Or can I get on with my work?"

There was silence for a moment, then, just as Seto went to turn back to his work, Atem let out a frustrated noise. "I need you to withdraw your complaint against Marik."

"No," Seto replied firmly.

"Kaiba..."

"Don't treat me like one of your subjects," Seto glowered at him, interrupting what was sure to be an impressive speech. "I might well have existed in your time, but in the modern age I am not your servant. I won't bend to your orders."

"I need Marik out of jail," Yami said, ignoring him.

"Why? So you can abandon your precious, 'hikari,' and fail to repay some of the debt you owe the human race?" Seto snarked back, pleased when hints of confusion slipped through the former Pharaoh's mask of indifference. "You may not be fully aware of what price was paid for your memories, but I am. Your little jaunt into the Shadow Realm cost over a fifth of the planet's population their lives or souls."

"What!?"

"Didn't the Speaker tell you?" Seto enjoyed the shock that little revelation bought a little too much, and could not resist the urge to drive the point further. "Just under one point two billion people were wiped out that morning. All because you didn't bother to wait to see if Bakura was nearby when you activated the tablet."

"Leave him alone!" Yugi snapped, seizing control of his body as shock took a hold of Atem. "It's not his fault his memories were booby-trapped!"

"No," Seto allowed, pulling the claws back in with Yugi, "but Marik would see him dead. Properly dead. As soon as possible. And though he saved the world five thousand years ago, he owes the world now a huge debt."

"Yami isn't leaving. Not any time soon," Yugi defended. "He promised Sirius he wouldn't. Not until Voldemort was defeated and Sirius came back." He let out a calming breath. "Besides, I'll take on any debt left when he leaves and repay it to the best of my abilities."

"You can guarantee that Yami won't go to Egypt?" Seto asked, watching him carefully.

"If this is about that bloody title..." Yugi warned, already thoroughly sick of the newly revived mutual distain between his darker self and the C.E.O. of Kaiba Corp.

"Bloody?" asked Seto, amused.

"Blame Ron and don't change the subject," Yugi grumbled. "We're not going to Egypt until this war is over. No matter what Marik says. I can promise you that."

Seto turned over the words in his head. Yugi never lied, not when it was important. A promise from him was as good as a written guarantee. "I'll see what I can do."

* * *

"If I had known I wouldn't be going back to England I'd have packed all my notes," Hermione grumbled as she searched through her bag, looking for the notes on privacy spells. She knew she had made them, but could not remember if they were with her or in her trunk, which was still currently in the Granger home back in the U.K.

"Can I help?" D.M.G. asked, poking her head in the door and looking at her curiously.

"Dani!" Hermione grinned, glomping the young woman, causing her to stagger backwards.

"Hi, 'Mione," D.M.G. replied, hugging the younger girl back once she had stabilised herself. "How'd you get yourself caught up with this lot?" She indicated the castle in general.

"Is this my concerned cousin Danielle asking, or is it D.M.G., the sole researcher, reporter and editor of Digital Duellist?" Hermione could not help asking.

"Cousin," Danielle promised, "even if I could put things up on Digital Duellist, I wouldn't spread your secrets unless you gave me permission."

"What do you mean, 'even if you could'?" Hermione frowned. "The site's yours, isn't it?"

"Question for a question?" Danielle offered, the reporter in her mentally pulling out a pad of paper and a pen even as she reminded herself that everything her cousin was saying was off the record.

"All right," Hermione allowed, turning back to her stack of notes as she did so, trying to work out if she had the information on the potion she and Kari had worked so long on only for Golden to steal the results before anyone could look at it. Her privacy spell notes were with it. "The guys saved me from a troll."

"Good one," Danielle chuckled, then paused when Hermione stared at her. "You're not serious."

"I am," Hermione nodded. "A troll broke into the school during my first year. I was friends with Kari before that, but the guys came to rescue us."

"Bloody hell," Dani commented, torn between shock and relief that her cousin had people willing to jump in front of trolls for her.

"Why can't you post anything on your site?" Hermione asked her cousin, glancing up from the pile of parchment she was leafing through.

"The police made me shut down Digital Duellist," the reporter sighed. "The guys who attacked CardCon could have used it to find targets."

"You never told me who attacked the Con." Hermione frowned. "Did someone admit to it?"

"Here," Dani tossed her cousin her 'phone, which still had the photos she had taken in its memory.

Hermione blanched as she looked the photos over, anger rising as she realised exactly what she was seeing. "They won't be using D.D. to get information."

"How do you know?" Dani frowned, curious and horribly tempted to ask if she could get an official statement for her site if the terrorists could not use it for information gathering.

"Because these are Death Eaters," Hermione handed the 'phone back with a rather impressively timed image of a Death Eater shooting off a spell on screen. "Pure-Blood Wizards. Their so-called experts on Muggles - non-magicals - can't even say telephone or electricity properly, yet alone use the internet."

Danielle frowned as she took her 'phone back. "So I got shut down for nothing?"

"Maybe," Hermione allowed, thinking things through. "I need to..."

"Hermione!" Rebecca flitted into the room, looking relieved. "Oh, good, here you are."

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, dropping her notes and watching her carefully.

"Yugi's called a Clan gathering," Rebecca informed her. "The Speaker popped by with an offer."

"Good," she replied, "I need to talk to him anyway. The Death Eaters aren't being sneaky anymore."

"I know," Rebecca pushed her recently acquired glasses up her nose, "I read Digital Duellist. I just haven't had a chance to talk to Yugi and Yami about it yet."

"If I may," Dani interrupted their conversation, putting her laptop bag on the nearest table and searching for something within it as she did so, "I can provide proof for him if you need it."

"The photos?" Hermione asked, wondering what her cousin was looking for.

"Not just that," Dani shook her head, "the Duellists were fighting back and one of their elemental ninjas managed to snatch this from one of the attackers." She fished out a Death Eater's mask, and grinned at her cousin. "I'll let you have it in exchange for one thing."

"Oh?" Hermione grimaced, kind of guessing what was to come. "What is it?"

"Oh, don't worry, it's nothing big," Dani replied, next pulling a Dictaphone out of her bag, "I just want an official statement from the High Priestess of the Pharaoh."

"Seriously?" Rebecca complained. "Right now?"

"I want first reactions," Dani shrugged.

"I have a better idea," Hermione smiled slightly, having obviously thought of something that appealed to her. "Come to the meeting with us."

"I'm not Clan," Dani reminded her.

"Eyewitness statement is better than second-hand reports," said Hermione, "you taught me that."

"Get me in, I'll tell him what I can," said Dani, then more slyly, "then can I get my statement?"

"I'm pretty sure Yugi'll want you to put something online. You'll probably get a statement from him."

"Oooh," Danielle's eyes lit up and Hermione could practically see her pull out her reporter's hat. "Count me in."

* * *

"Come on guys..." Tristan paced the floo room, scowling at the Japanese fireplace. "What's taking so long? Damn it!" He kicked a decorative vase, then swore as it toppled over and smashed.

If there was one thing he had not missed about being around his friends, it was playing the waiting game. Unfortunately, it often felt like that was all he was good for. Before Shadowmorn he had had no magic of his own and he had been bad at Duel Monsters, to put it politely. He had been rather good at providing muscle for their magically overpowered but physically underwhelming friend, but that had been about it.

He had wanted to go along with the group that had gone to Kaiba Corp, but it had been argued that taking too many along would probably get them caught. They were, after all, still supposed to be in protective custody and away from the mainland. He had tried to suggest that maybe it would be better he went than Joey but the resulting debate between the pair of them had resulted Yami threatening to leave both of them behind.

It did not help his nerves that the Pharaoh was as unhappy with Yugi's plan as the rest of them. When Yami and Yugi disagreed, something went wrong. Not that things could really go much more wrong than they already had, but it still put him on edge.

Green flames flared in the Japanese fireplace, and Joey stepped out carrying a stack of paperwork. Mokuba followed him closely. Tristan relaxed slightly. "So?" he asked.

"He'll be by later. We got bigger problems," Joey shrugged it off, in a fouler mood than when he had left that morning, something that Tristan had not thought was possible.

"What now?" Tristan groaned, worried something else had burned to the ground. Yugi stepped through the fireplace and immediately started dialling someone on his 'phone. "Guys?"

"Tea called," Joey explained as Yugi started talking in a rapid and fluent mixture of English and Japanese. "The American Ministry want a meeting with Yugi."

"Uh, no?" Tristan scoffed. He recalled with great clarity the events of the previous summer. He had little interest in getting involved with the Americans again.

"That's what Tea said," Joey grimaced, "then from what I can gather they threatened to arrest her if she didn't help them."

"Great," Tristan groaned. "Has anyone told the Japanese Ministry?"

"We were on the wrong side of the floo for that," Joey pointed out, "and Ya...Atem, I'm never going to get used to that, thinks he has a plan if they try to keep Tea from getting to the meeting."

"We are _not_ storming the American Ministry of Magic," Tristan could easily see where the plan was going.

"If they kidnap Tea we are," said Atem, appeared in spirit form. Tristan jumped a mile, still unused to being able to see and hear ghosts.

"Damn it, Yami. A little warning would be nice," he ranted, distracting Yugi from his conversation. The spirit of the Millennium Puzzle did not apologise, but Joey started sniggering.

"Now you know how I felt," he smirked. Yugi had gone back to his reassuring Tea that they had a plan and was now imploring her not to worry. Tristan just rolled his eyes.

"If I don't hear from you in an hour I'll send someone to check on you," Yugi promised, his hand going automatically to his deck. He suddenly chuckled. "I'm not sure Boh would be suitable, it wouldn't help anything if they made him explode. It's all right, hand it over if they're that insistent." Tristan watched him take a deep breath, obviously not in the mood for this crap on top of everything else. He switched to English. "Mutou Yugi speaking, who is this?"

"Oh, brother," complained Joey, seeing his friend grimace and sit on the hearth of the disconnected England fireplace. He put the 'phone on loudspeaker.

"...of Magic in America. It's of vital importance that we speak to you in person as soon as possible."

"I'm sorry," Yugi replied in a manner that indicated he was being polite but really just wanted the other person to buzz off. Considering it was generally only ever used on the hordes of Duellists that had swarmed daily at the Game Shop, or Weevil Underwood, Tristan found it funny. "But I'm not supposed to leave my protective custody so you really need to go through the Japanese Ministry if you want a meeting, rather than harassing my friends."

"You're also supposed to get visitors approved before they come to you and yet we know Miss Gardener is coming over later."

Atem scowled at this, wondering how long they had been bugging their conversations with Tea. Yugi, on the other hand, just sighed and asked, "What is it you want from me?"

"My bosses would like a few moments of your time in order to get the full story of what happened during Shadowmorn and find out more about the Shadows," replied the woman on the other end, who had introduced herself as Adriana, "and about the seal which held them."

"No," Yugi's instant, uncompromising reply stunned his friends. They had expected him to at least try the more diplomatic route first. "I can't share the details of the ritual and I wouldn't even if I could."

"Mr Mutou..."

"I don't know the full details of the ritual and I won't share what I do know with people I don't know and trust. Not when trying it might cause the Shadows to riot," Yugi interrupted, "and I don't appreciate you badgering my friends. If you want to have a meeting with me, then please, contact Saitou-san, don't force my friends to 'phone me."

Suddenly, Yugi's mood made much more sense. Picking on his friends had always been a sure-fire way to earn the ire of both his personalities.

"But Mr Mutou..."

"Now if you don't mind, Tea has an important family meeting to get to and I don't really have time for pointless questions," Yugi interrupted again. Rituals were the last thing he wanted to think about. "I have a business to run."

"You do realise that most of Industrial Illusions is an American company and we can make it very difficult for you to continue trading?"

Mokuba let out a sharp hiss. His brother's company relied on Industrial Illusions for a lot of its products. If the American government started putting pressure on it, Kaiba Corp. would take another hit and they really could not afford it right now. The company was in enough trouble as it was between Shadowmorn and the Death Eaters' on Domino. Any more and it was possible that those who wanted to seize Kaiba Corp. from them might actually succeed, or worse. The company could lose the last of their staff and they would be forced to shut down entirely.

Yugi glanced at Mokuba, grimacing slightly at his expression. "If we're going to have this face-to-face meeting, I want two of my people and the Speaker and whoever he chooses present," he said aloud, ignoring Atem's comment about having had enough of blackmailing gits, although he also fully agreed with it.

"Of course," Adriana sounded pleased.

"On neutral ground," Atem recommended, wondering why it felt a lot like they were negotiating a parley.

"You can travel to us, a lot easier than we can to you," Adriana pointed out when Yugi passed it on.

"With all due respect," Yugi tried to ignore the fact Joey was making gestures that suggested she was due none from them, "that's rubbish. You have access to the same methods of magical travel we do. More in fact, since none of us can make portkeys or apperate."

"We'll talk with the Japanese Ministry and liaise with them about a suitable time and date," Adriana said, ill-amused to have been called out, "in the meantime, if we could have some guarantee that you'll actually keep your word..."

Yugi was rapidly tiring of her games. "I've never been anything but honest in my dealings with your Ministry," he said. "Your Ministry were the ones who screwed up past relations after arresting all of us, throwing us in jail cells when we needed medical assistance and threatening to kill Yami for possessing me, when I was the one who switched us in order to protect him."

He paused, realising that the hurt and anger he had previously been prevented from feeling was flowing out of him at the wrong time and against the wrong person. His link partners both offered him reassurances, until he felt he was able to continue. "Perhaps this might be enough. I, Mutou Yugi, swear, on my magic, to attend a meeting between myself, the Magical Ministry of Japan and the one of America, at a date and time arranged by all three parties, to discuss the Shadows."

"Yuge!" Joey protested as he felt magic swirl around Yugi for a moment, before settling and glowing white.

"That will do," Adriana sounded appeased, if nothing else, "thank you for your co-operation." With that, the 'phone went dead.

"You do realise it's a trap, right?" Joey scowled.

"Yeah," Yugi admitted, leaning against a fireplace pillar, "but they have the advantage. We're not the government of a huge country with political clout across multiple countries. We're just a group of young adults in way over our head." The others hated it, but Yugi had a point. "And..."

A swirling column of Shadows appeared in the middle of the room and Atem switched with Yugi, while Tristan moved to step in front of him and Joey did the same for Mokuba. Out stepped Tea, accompanied by her Shining Friendship. She looked around, spotted Atem and stalked towards him. The ex-Pharaoh, recognising impending female wrath when he saw it, dropped Yugi in control just in time for her to slap him upside the head.

"Mutou Yugi, you are an idiot."

Yugi just stared at her in shock. She had hit the other boys in their group plenty of times, but that was the _first_ time she had ever hit _him_.

"Boys," Tea let out a frustrated noise, before hugging each of them in turn. "So where am I staying tonight?" she asked.

"I'll show you," Joey grinned at her, amused by Yugi's stunned silence. "This way." He gestured for her to precede him.

"Lead on."

* * *

"Excuse me?" Hermione asked as she double-checked what she was hearing and wondered why everyone seemed to be coming to her rather than one of the guys.

"You lot are going to have to face Moldywarts and his Dead Munchies at some point, we want in when you do," Dinah repeated herself priggishly.

"I'm not the leader of our group," Hermione pointed out, "it's not me you have to talk to."

"You're a High Priestess of Pharaoh Yugi's Court," Dinah disagreed, "so if you vouch for us, Yugi'll trust your word."

"I'm not..." Hermione sighed. "Where did that even come from anyway?"

"The Duel Monsters said that's how you announced yourself to the Shadows."

Hermione wanted to face palm the answer, remembering with distinct clarity how she had introduced herself into the Memory World Shadow Game.

_"I'm Hermione Granger, I'm a Priestess who serves Prince Yugi…"_

"Oh," she winced.

Dinah smirked a little. "Anyway," she said, "back to the point. We want in when you lot face the tosser who attacked CardCon and killed all those people."

"It's going to be dangerous and you're going to have to convince Yugi yourself, even if I say yes," Hermione pointed out. "He doesn't like it when we follow him into danger, even though we're his friends, so he's not going to want you guys joining in."

"It wasn't even his fight," Rebecca reminded the bushy-haired Gryffindor, having followed her and D.M.G. from Hermione's room, "not to start with. It was Harry's. He's the one Voldemort targeted first and from what I know, Harry's even less keen on dragging people into his fights then Yugi is."

"They're two of a kind," Hermione murmured.

"You can't win a war without troops," said Dinah, "and we're willing to follow orders. At least until the prat's dealt with."

"Still not my call," Hermione reiterated, "even if you have a point."

"Hey, 'Mione?" D.M.G. asked, "remember what we need to tell your boss?"

"Yeah?" Hermione frowned, wondering why her cousin was bringing up the fact they needed to warn Yugi and Harry that Voldemort had attacked the largest Duel Monsters convention in the U.K.

"Eyewitness reports," said the reporter.

Hermione thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "All right," she agreed, "Dinah, come with us to the meeting? If we can prove that they need backup, hopefully they won't think that going off on their own is such a great idea."

"If I help you talk some sense into Yugi and Harry? Was it? Will you help talk the Court into accepting our help?" Dinah asked.

"You actually manage to help me talk some sense into those two and I'll nominate you for an award, let alone vouch for you," Hermione snorted. "Not that it's possible."

"We can try," Dinah grinned, relishing the challenge.

"You're all nuts," Rebecca complained.

"You came to help us too," said Hermione.

"Okay, okay, _we're_ all nuts," Rebecca corrected herself.

"Then we all fit in here," Hermione sighed. "Right, food, then meeting. Seto's not getting here till after work so we have time to grab a snack."

"I thought Joey threatened to punch Kaiba's lights out the next time they saw each other?" Rebecca asked, confused.

"Really?" Dani grinned. "Then I want a front row seat."

"Dani!" Hermione scolded.

"What?" Dani asked innocently. "It all adds to the flavour of the article."

"I can't take you anywhere, can I?"

* * *

"Bloody Kaiba and his bloody security guards," Marik grumbled as he collected the stuff that had been confiscated when he had been arrested. "I swear I could sue for harassment." He glowered up at the Ministry official who was overseeing his case. "So, what? I can go now?"

"That's right, the charges have been dropped and you're free to go anywhere you like," the Ministry official agreed, "except to go see Mutou-san."

"Oh, for...why not?" Marik demanded, sick of this whole charade.

"Because he's no longer in Japan."

"What!?"

"Please refrain from screeching, Ishtar-san," the official requested. "To answer your question, the Ministry had him moved to a safe-house off of the mainland."

"So where is he?" Marik growled.

"I can't say."

"Oh, not this again," Marik groaned, "I NEED to speak with Yugi urgently."

"When it's safe for him to be on the mainland again, we'll arrange a meeting," the official reassured him, though Marik could not help but feel like he had been patted on the head and told, 'there, there,' like some four-year-old throwing a tantrum. "But until then I'm afraid you don't have the clearance to know where he is. Nor will you get it. Not with your criminal record."

"That was five years ago!" Marik snapped. "I've changed since then!"

"Doesn't matter," said the official with a shrug, "with attempted murder, kidnapping, misuse of magic and forced possession on your rap sheet, you're lucky you're not staying in that cell, so don't push it."

Marik hesitated. While he had been a, 'guest,' of the Ministry, his position had been made very clear to him. While they had not intervened in Battle City, they were fully aware of what he had been up to before and during it. The fact he had had a psychotic alter ego and had seemed to mellow once it had been removed was the only reason they were even allowing him to stay in Japan. They, understandably, did not trust him, and he had not helped his case when he had tried to explain why it was so urgent for him to see Yugi. He had not wanted to tell them as much as he had, but once he had started talking he had seemed unable to stop. Marik was personally of the opinion that they had put something in the tea.

He would have preferred to skip dealing with Kaiba, and hence the Ministry entirely, but he had no way of contacting Yugi without their assistance. The only telephone number he had had was for the shop and he had no way of sending Yugi a message.

"Fine," Marik grimaced, making a mental note to see if Ishizu had any better luck, "I'll wait."

"Excellent," said the official, nodding his approval, "here's your stuff." Marik noted the careful way the suited individual handled his deck, but pretty much just dumped the rest of his things on the table. "And Kaiba-san left a message for you," the man handed him an envelope which he snatched from his hand.

"What does he want?" Marik growled, his anger diminishing slightly when he realised that it was, in fact, Yugi's mobile 'phone number. Annoyed and confused as to why Kaiba had not just given it to him in the first place, he grabbed the rest of his things and followed the official out of the room, down the corridors along to reception and stalked out of the front doors, slamming them shut behind him.

Pulling out his own mobile device, he entered the number he had been given and put the handset to his ear. It rang constantly for a minute or so, then frustratingly cut to, "Mutou Yugi speaking, I'm sorry I can't come to the 'phone right now. Please leave a message after the beep and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. BEEP."

"Oh, for..."

* * *

The sun was just setting on Duellist Kingdom when Seto finally managed to get there. Mokuba and his girlfriend had waited for him at the Fireplace Room, as it was getting to be known, and by the time they had led him down to the beach, the bonfire had already been lit and there was a tag team duel going on between Tate and Lyle, the pyro tag team Duellists from DuelDMU, and Atem and Joey, who were giving the pair a run for their money.

"Why did they want to hold this meeting down here?" Seto asked, confused as he watched the former Pharaoh destroy all four Solar Flare Dragons, a combination that would have destroyed his and Joey's Life Points in just one more turn. The combination he used, Dark Magician and Diffusion Wave Motion, cut through their lockdown and wiped out pyro Duellists.

"Should have seen that coming," Tate seethed as his teammates laughed at him and Lyle forked over some money to their leader, a young woman.

"Too many people to get around one table," Mokuba explained with a grin, having heard about the wagers beforehand, but far from foolish enough to bet against the King of Games himself, "and we can't be sure that the Japanese Ministry didn't bug the castle while they were warding the island."

"More paranoia from Yugi?" Seto asked, looking over at Atem, who had given control back to his lighter self and taken spirit form and settled in the sand next to Harry.

"Me, actually," Mokuba said, and shrugged, "I just remember how many times we had to watch out for opponents bugging our 'phones and things to steal secrets."

Seto would have commended his brother's idea, but Joey had just finished joking about with the tag team Duellists and spotted him. "Wheeler," he said, barely acknowledging the other Clan founder, who glowered at him and hunkered down by the fire.

"Seto," Yugi smiled as Atem gave him a sharp nod, "glad you could make it."

"I told you I'd be here," Seto replied. He hesitated before taking off his white trench coat and sitting on the sand, the pristine garment folded beside him. Mokuba swiftly joined the group of would-be fourth years that were gathering by the box of ice containing the drinks.

"So," said Tea, looking at Yugi as the main group settled and the DuelDMU lot moved further up the beach, a second bonfire flaring up at their position not long after they migrated. Dinah, however, and D.M.G., settled on the sands on either side of Hermione. "You said you had something important to ask us?"

"That's right," Yugi waited until everyone was sat down and handed out drinks. "The Speaker for Magical Japan came to see me earlier," he started, watching everyone as he slumped down next to Atem, going to lean on his dark half's shoulder only to catch himself at the last instant. "He wanted to make us an offer."

He could feel that he had everyone's attention, though the blazing fire made it a little difficult to see the whole group. "Before I say anything else, I'll warn you all that I've agreed to take a group of refugees that the French Ministry sent our way."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" asked Tea.

"I won't let the Death Eaters leave anyone else homeless," Yugi replied, his tone brokering no argument and reminding his friends a little too much of his darker self to be completely comfortable. Harry nudged him over the link, concerned for his friend and able to sense that he was not entirely in the present. Yugi started, then shook himself loose of Atem's ancient memories and nudged back, sending reassurance his way. _"I'm okay,"_ he sent, smiling slightly at Harry before turning back to the matter at hand.

"In exchange for us working with the Shiragiku and helping in training exercises, the Speaker for Magical Japan is offering us diplomatic immunity not only in Japan, but wherever we go," he continued, "along with supplies and materials to build homes. Not only that, but full support in dealing with Voldemort, and the English Ministry are willing to hand over the prophecy between Harry and Voldemort." There was stunned silence for a moment, then everyone started talking at once. Past experience had taught Yugi that trying to be heard over them was futile so he just let them talk themselves out.

"We," Hermione indicated herself, Rebecca, D.M.G. and Dinah, as the babbling died down, "need to tell you something before anyone says anything else."

"Okay," said Yugi, gesturing for her to go on.

"Are you aware of CardCon? The annual weeklong convention, that's held in England and is the biggest con of its kind in the country?" Hermione asked.

"I've been invited as a guest a couple of times," Yugi confirmed.

"Well the Friday before Voldemort attacked Domino, he and his Death Eaters attacked CardCon."

For a moment there was uproar amongst the gathered group, something D.M.G. and Dinah were surprisingly gratified to see. Finally, Yugi held up his hand and the rest fell silent within seconds.

"How bad?" he asked, concern obvious.

"Really," Dinah replied, "there were thousands of people there. Us Shadow-Touched fought back as best we could, but we were in deep trouble 'til one of Kaiba's Blue Eyes White Dragons showed up." She looked at Seto and added, "Thanks for that, by the way."

Seto just waved it off.

"I figured since Kaiba knew about it, you lot did too 'til I spoke to Hermione," Dinah said, with a frown.

"The Death Eaters weren't discriminating between Shadow-Touched and mundane, or by age or anything," D.M.G. continued, "they were just out to slaughter everyone there." Her expression soured. "Their leader was saying something about wiping out the tainted ones and destroying anyone who might ally with Potter and the Pharaoh." She glanced between the shade of Yugi's twin brother and the Pharaoh himself. "Who's Potter?"

"That would be me," Harry murmured, trying not to think about the fact that Voldemort had attacked the convention to remove threats, only to cause some of those he attacked to join their side anyway.

"I thought your surname was Domino?" said Dinah incredulously.

"No," Harry looked embarrassed, "that was the name I was using to avoid being found by Voldemort and his goons."

"So you're Harry Potter, not Harry Domino, got it."

He noticed D.M.G. jot that down, and realised she was dutifully taking notes on the meeting as a whole.

"If Voldemort's attacking innocent people to prevent them _possibly_ joining up with us, we need to stop him," said Yugi, hands balled into fists. "He's hurt too many people already and it looks like he's just going to get worse the longer we leave it."

"It's me he wants," said Harry.

"It's not just you," Atem retorted. "He's threatened to kill most of us at some point."

"Look," Joey glowered at Harry, "we don't let Yugi go off on his own to fight these idiots. There's no way you're allowed to go off on your own, either."

"There's more," D.M.G. interrupted what was swiftly going to become an argument. "The Duel Monsters couldn't touch Voldemort. He could use the Shadows to defend himself against almost anything we threw at him. The only attacks that got through were from LIGHT monsters."

"He's grown stronger then," Harry frowned. "When I faced him in the graveyard, when Wormtail killed Kari, he wasn't that powerful."

The thought of Voldemort with enough power to shrug off anything but a LIGHT attack, and in all likelihood growing even stronger, was not a reassuring one, and left them all speechless.

"I have to stop him," Harry broke the silence, speaking over the sounds of the crackling fire.

"You shouldn't..."

"I'm not going to go alone. I can't take him alone, not if he can do that. I'll need help," said Harry, "but if there's a prophecy that made him try to kill me as a kid, it probably means that I'm the only one who can beat him."

"If we're going to accept the Speaker's offer, we should probably come up with a plan," Hermione commented.

"Well, the Speaker's not coming back 'til morning, so..."


	14. Jumping in the Deep End

"Are you sure you're going to be all right, herding this lot around?" Yugi said worriedly to Tristan, as he watched the last few refugees gather their bags and suitcases and head for the rooms they had been assigned.

"I should be asking you the same thing," Tristan replied with a scowl. "Are you really sure this is a good idea?"

"Taking in the refugees?" asked Yugi.

"No, heading back to England," said Tristan, and he rolled his eyes. "Especially with only the four of you."

"Five," Yugi reminded his friend, who had been adamant that he should be going with them, "I have Yami too."

"You and Yami only count for one again now, remember?" Tristan responded grouchily.

Yugi huffed. "Yes, but we'll have Harry, Joey and Hermione for backup," he said, and counted them off on his fingers, "and we went over this last night. Something's bound to go wrong and we shouldn't take too many people in case it does."

"I still don't think you should be going at all," said Tristan, and poked Yugi roughly. He caught the attention of the last stragglers, who stopped to watch the altercation. "You should be here, dealing with this lot, keeping Industrial Illusions afloat and…you're not going to agree with me, are you?"

"As long as Voldemort is hunting Shadow Touched, he's my problem," said Yugi with a shake of his head. "It was our," he gestured to the Puzzle, "screw up that created them. It's our responsibility to protect them."

"You couldn't have known that Bakura was there," Tristan pointed out, poking Yugi again, "or what he was going to do. You're walking into a trap because of something that wasn't your fault!"

"Tristan," Yugi began, but his voice trailed off. He knew his friend was just worried about them, but they had hashed out every idea and talked them over to death. This was the plan that allowed for the greatest margin of success.

Harry had to go. No-one else could get the orb out of the Hall of Prophecy. If Harry was going, so were Yugi and Yami. With his link partner going into danger and the enemy able to summon things equivalent to the Egyptian God Monsters, then Yugi had to go, if only to ensure Harry would return.

There had never really been any question of Joey not going. He had had Yugi's back for nigh on a decade, so there was no way in hell he was going to let him or Harry walk into danger without him now. This left the debate over the last spot.

Tristan had put himself forward before anyone else could and was still fuming over how quickly he had been shot down. It was his own fault, he knew that. He had had no magic before the gang had been split up by the ministries of various countries. He had not practised with his Shadow Magic since he had gained access to it. He had no wand or any training with one, and he was not used to the magical community in England. He had the physical strength, but in this, just as he had been in every other battle his friends had fought, he was utterly useless and it was driving him to distraction.

With Kaiba taking himself out the running, since he needed to run his company, Ombre refusing to risk the safety of anyone else by going with them while her control was shot, and Ryou stepping back for much the same reason, that left Mokuba, Luna, the Weasleys and Hermione.

There was no way the elder Kaiba, who was his little brother's guardian, would allow Mokuba to go. Mokuba was needed to help prevent Kaiba Corp falling into complete collapse. Seto knew Mokuba would eventually forgive him for the oath he had extracted from his little brother to prevent just that.

If Mokuba was not going, then it was decided that no one under Harry's age should go, much to Ginny's outrage, though Luna looked as if she had expected it.

The only hesitation Weasley twins had had was that they were looking for one person, not two, and while they were skilled at tricks and treats, they were not amongst the group that had trained in combat during the last year.

Finally, it had been decided that Hermione, who had honed her Shadow skills until they were second nature alongside Kari and knew spells far beyond her age level, would take the last spot.

Ron had exploded with rage, launched into a lengthy, ranting and mostly rude tirade against the group, then stalked off back to the castle.

Tristan, in all honesty, had wanted to do much the same but knew it would not have helped matters.

"I need you here," Yugi reminded him. "You're the most normal person here. You saw how the refugees acted towards me, it was 'yes, Mr Mutou' and 'thank you, Mr Mutou' and 'we're really grateful for this, Your Highness.' They'll listen to me, but they won't actually settle in if they think I'm hovering around. You can help them with that better than I can."

Yugi did have a point, Tristan thought as the stragglers decided that the argument was over and started moving again, and that was not the only task he had been entrusted with. Yugi was leaving the Millennium Items, all except his Puzzle and Draco's Ring, in his care.

"Fine," Tristan said, and smirked, "but when you get back, I'll have full control over your people and your Millennium Items. Then you'll have to duel me for them."

"Don't even joke," Yugi groaned, even as a smile graced his features. "The last thing I need is you going villain on me."

"Not that I'm too worried," Yami said, appearing in his ghostly form at Yugi's side, causing Tristan to jump out of his skin. His characteristic smirk was displayed prominent. "You still can't duel your way out of a paper bag and it's been how long?"

"Damn it, Yami! Warning!" Tristan snarled at him. When Yami continued to look amused, Tristan turned to Yugi. "You lot had better come back in one piece, because I refuse to be the one to tell the Ishtars they have to wait another five thousand years to send Atem on."

He had meant it as a joke, but Yugi flinched and Yami's amusement visibly fled. "It won't be that long," Yugi murmured, looking at the floor, "just until the war is over."

"Are you sure you can't get Yami a new body?" Tristan asked, "I mean you managed it by accident last time."

"We don't know how the magicks merged back in first year," said Yugi, shaking his head. "We don't know what Bakura was trying to do, and Joey's forgotten what he was trying to cast. Trying to recreate the effect could hurt more people than it helps."

"But there has to be other ways," Tristan pointed out. "Voldemort..."

"I am not using that ritual!" Atem snapped, more furious at Voldemort for his actions than at Tristan's suggestion. "I don't know where my father is buried for one, and I wouldn't disturb his rest again!" He looked at Yugi. "And I won't ask Yugi to disinter his family for me!"

"And everything else we've had recommended runs the risk of the body being disenchanted during a fight," Yugi finished, not entirely sure he could bring himself to do so, even if Yami had asked.

"So that's it then?" Tristan asked, his own good humour fleeing him. "You've made up your minds? Defeat Voldemort and then that's it?"

"I've been around long enough," Atem nodded, slightly dejectedly. "Yugi doesn't need me anymore and it's not fair to ask him to host me."

"I've never minded," Yugi reminded his darker self.

"I know, but I can't go back to living like this, not again. It was fine before I had my own form, but," Yami's voice trailed off for a moment before he continued, "if it wasn't for Voldemort and the war, we'd have gone already."

"We'd better go grab our bag," said Yugi. The comment came completely out of left field, but Tristan could understand the need to change the subject. "We'll see you later." With that, Yami faded into the Puzzle and Yugi departed from the room.

"Shit!" Tristan snarled, wheeling around and punching the nearest wall. "Damn Neos! Damn Bakura! And damn Voldemort!" With each 'damn' he punched the wall again, only stopping when he realised he was damaging the plasterboard.

He pulled his hand out of the dent and winced at the sight of his own bloodied knuckles.

"Damn the crappy building work too," he growled, and he stalked off to get his hand treated.

* * *

"Hermione!"

The girl in question turned to look at the person calling her name, only to find her cousin was hovering in the doorway with a concerned expression.

"Dani…I don't really have time to talk." Hermione turned back to her bag, grateful it was one that she had enchanted to hold everything she could possibly need and store it so she could pull what she wanted out easily.

"You're seriously considering going? With only four of you?" Danielle asked, looking ill-amused as she watched her double-check everything she was taking. "I thought we were supposed to be going as a group, the Clan and the DMUers."

Hermione sighed softly as she turned to look at her reporter cousin. "I warned you Yugi and Harry wouldn't want anyone going with them," she said.

"You also said you wanted some sense knocked into them," Dani pointed out coldly.

"I did and I still do," said Hermione, and smiled slightly as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "However I didn't swear not to call in the troops if things get bad."

Dani paused in her pre-prepared tirade to look at her properly. "Huh!" she said, then smirked a little. "You think we can get to you lot?"

"If I send a Duel Monster, they should be able to bring you guys straight to us," said Hermione. She seemed a lot less stressed than her cousin had expected her to be. "Which should save some time."

"And of course you don't want Yugi or Harry to know," said Dani, nodding her head in understanding.

"Yugi's probably already worked it out. He's not stupid," said Hermione defensively, a hint of a blush tinting her cheeks. "And if Yugi knows, Harry knows."

"Well you better keep to that," the reporter grumbled, "I can't believe the story I'm missing out on."

Hermione considered how to appease her cousin. "Tell you what," she said, "the wizarding world has these things called pensieves. They allow you to see other people's memories. If you help the others get everyone settled and maintain order while we're gone, I'll let you borrow my memories of everything that happens in England."

"Everything?" Dani asked, grinning. "And you won't ask me to hold anything back?"

"I trust you to use your discretion," Hermione nodded.

"Deal, but you had better call us the moment anything happens," said Dani, and poked her cousin, "because I swear if you get yourself hurt, I'm going to make their lives a misery and then I'm going to come and kick your arse."

"I think you'd have to get through the guys first," Hermione giggled.

"Never underestimate how fast a guy will get out of the way of a pissed off female," said Dani, and tutted. "Believe me, they won't be in my way for very long."

"Right, note to self, if I get into trouble, hide behind Joey," Hermione chuckled, then paused and corrected herself. "Hide behind Yugi, who will be behind Joey."

"Good girl," said Dani, beaming, "now, have you got everything?"

"Clothes, food," Hermione started listing, "water, tent, books, spares, camping equipment, fire-making stuff, first-aid kit, basic emergency potions, chocolate..."

* * *

"You're going to be careful, right?" Serenity asked her brother worriedly, as she helped her mentor assemble a small kit of essential potions that would be useful if something went wrong, which she was assuming it would.

"I'm always careful," Joey replied, earning him a frustrated sigh from his sister as she added another blood-replenishing potion to the bag and went looking for another pain reliever.

"I think what your sister means, Wheeler-san," Akata informed Joey, "is we would quite like it if your group didn't put themselves in comas or nearly killed themselves this time please. It's quite bad for our reputation if our patients keep coming back in such a short space of time."

"I'll try but I can't make any promises," Joey replied with a grimace. "If the English play nicely while we're over there it won't be an issue. I mean between our Japanese Ministry babysitters, I mean bodyguards, we should be fine, but..."

"Your fine and my fine are two different things," Serenity complained, shoving another two pain relievers in the bag along with an antidote or two for various potions and poisons. "There, that should be everything."

"Are you going to be all right here on your own?" Joey worried at her, noting the stress on her features and wondering when she had last slept properly.

"I'm not the one who's walking into danger again," Serenity retorted, before letting out a yawn and looking embarrassed. "Sorry, I had a really early start and it's been hell trying to sort out the medical reports the Japanese Ministry sent over. None of them seem completely accurate and half of them are incomplete."

"Anything we should be worried about?" Joey asked, wondering if there was something the medical team, which consisted of Healer Akata, Dr Hoshigawa, Serenity and a group of newly graduated medical students of both schools of healing, had not told them yet.

"No, no," Akata reassured him, having been pleased when the Speaker for Magical Japan had assigned the Shadow-Touched of Duellist Kingdom a few more healers to make up for the increased numbers. "The paperwork was just rushed. I don't think their healers wanted to deal with them for too long."

"If you're sure..." said Joey.

"Positive," said Serenity, nodding and smiling at her brother, though she did not really feel like doing so. "Worry about yourself."

"Don't worry, it's gonna be a cake walk," said Joey with a reassuring grin. "Besides, even if it's not, Yami's still ticked off at the English ministry and there's nothing more dangerous than a ticked off Yami. We'll be fine."

"Just promise me you're not going to do anything crazy," said Serenity. She stared at her brother, watching him like a hawk.

"Besides going to visit the English ministry?" Joey asked with a cheeky smile.

"Joey," Serenity's tone turned to one of warning, not appreciating his jokes right now.

"I promise, sis, I'm coming back. Alive," said Joey, his tone turning serious. "And I'm bringing Yugi, Harry and Hermione back with me."

"Good," said Serenity, looking relieved. Joey did not break promises he made to her. "When are you leaving?"

Joey shrugged. "Not that long now. Yugi's just finishing something with the refugees and then we'll be off."

"I'll see you down there."

* * *

"Potter-san?"

Harry jumped at the sound of someone calling his name. He wheeled around to find the Speaker for Magical Japan had returned from his tour of the castle and was standing in the doorway.

"Are you ready?"

Harry nodded, wondering how Mai had successfully managed to get Saitou lost just long enough for them to settle the refugees but reminding himself to thank her for it. "As I'll ever be. If I might ask a question?"

"Go ahead," replied Saitou.

"Wasn't the Minister of Magic supposed to be meeting us?" Harry asked. "Is he waiting for us at the Japanese ministry?"

"No, there's been a change of plans," Saitou said, looking ill-amused by the subject. "He'll meet you when you get to the English ministry."

Both looked towards the door as they heard voices approaching. Hermione and her cousin walked through the door, Dani lugging one of Hermione's bags.

"How long are we going for?" Harry asked, unable to hide his amusement.

"I have to return some books," Hermione replied with an arched look. "And," she slid a satchel off of her shoulder, which dropped to the floor with a heavy thump, "I have our travel documents."

For a moment Harry wondered about the possibility of using her bag as a bludgeoning weapon if they got into trouble. It certainly sounded heavy enough. He dismissed the idea swiftly. If the books inside got damaged, Hermione would murder the culprit.

"Well I'm ready," Hermione continued, moving to perch on the empty dining table, still wearing one shoulder bag. Her hand patted this one. "Everything I need is in here."

Harry glanced at the other bags in confusion.

"Decoys," Hermione explained.

"Are you both coming?" Saitou wondered, looking the pair over and wondering if there was a single Court member over the age of thirty.

The girls shared a meaningful look, then Dani looked away, pouting. "No," she answered shortly, "but if anything goes wrong…!"

Suddenly, the door slammed against the wall, an impressive feat considering it had already _been_ open, and Joey rushed in, looking flustered. "I'm here!" he was yelling. "I'm not late! Don't go without me!"

Hermione looked to the ceiling, rolling her eyes. "Joey, please, take a head count."

Joey paused, looking up and around before frowning in confusion. Finally, he asked, "Hey, where's Yuge? Weren't we meant to be leaving like, ten minutes ago?"

Harry glanced at his watch, then threw a confused look at Hermione. "I thought you said…"

"I'm sure Yugi just got held up with some last minute stuff," Hermione interrupted him, her face blushing brilliant. "This is his island after all. Dani, will you go and look for him?"

It turned out to be unnecessary as Yugi finally arrived, talking rapidly to Yakko and Geko Tenma about Industrial Illusions. Once things were settled with them and they shot off to implement the ideas they had presented him, he finally turned to the others.

"Sorry," said Yugi, "last minute thing…"

"If you need to stay to run the company," said Harry, trying to offer Yugi one last out before they left the island, only to receive a look that would have suited Atem better than it did Yugi.

"We've been over this. Industrial Illusions doesn't need me to run smoothly. I'm just a figurehead," Yugi replied. "Besides, we still haven't worked out a way of getting around Voldemort's newest trick that doesn't involve the God monsters and you can't summon them."

Harry had no counter for that. Yugi was right. The Egyptian God Monsters answered to Yugi and Atem and them only. Even with his bond to the Puzzle they had not answered his call before their cards had been damaged, and now with their tablets laid so far away, buried beneath the Egyptian sands, even Atem struggled to call upon them.

"Are we all ready?" Saitou asked the four as Joey helped Hermione collect together her bags, watching as Yugi's eyes widened at the sight of the small collection.

" _Umm_. Hermione?" Yugi asked, his confusion obvious. "I don't think you'll need all of those."

"Decoys," Hermione explained again. She looked at Saitou and nodded. When he had obtained assents from the other three, he pulled out a portkey from his pocket, a small keychain of the Japanese flag.

"We just need to stop by the ministry to pick up our bodyguards," Saitou explained as the quartet gathered around him, "and then we'll be heading straight to England."

"Lotus and Akane are coming with us?" Yugi asked tensely.

Saitou shook his head. "No. They wanted to, but it was considered unwise considering the English ministry's position on magical creatures. The Shiragiku coming with us are all human." Mostly, he wanted to add, but he was keeping that fact under his hat for the time being.

"Makes sense," Yugi allowed, relieved. He liked the _kitsune_ and _nekomata_ , both of whom had protected him in the past and only failed because he had snuck off. He would have felt horrendous about dragging them into the trap if something had happened to them, not that taking a bunch of human Aurors into the mess they were probably going into was a much better idea, but Yugi could not help but feel relieved that it was not more of his friends coming along for the ride.

The portkey journey was about as smooth as any other they had taken, and it did not take long for them to collect the Shiragiku and get a second portkey to the Japanese Embassy in London. From there it was a short limo ride from the embassy to the entrance of the ministry building. They took the official entrance into the building _via_ telephone booth, with the Shiragiku going first just in case. Saitou followed his men through.

When Yugi's group finally joined the others, they were hurried to a desk where they had to register their wands. Then and only then, once they had been through that process were they allowed to meet the welcoming committee.

The Minister of Magic was there, a man who none of the Clan had met before, along with a woman that could have been mistaken for a toad and was wearing a rather hideous pink skirt suit. Behind them was a small contingent of uniformed men and women, all of whom seemed to be on high alert, and a trio of impassive and two almost completely unreadable men in plain black robes.

"Speaker Saitou, it's an honour to have you here today," said the minister, a stern and aloof-looking man. The tone of his voice conveyed his honesty. He turned from Saitou and Harry and offered his hand. "My name is Rufus Scrimgeour. I'm pleased to finally get a chance to meet you."

"Harry Potter," replied Harry, although he was pretty certain Scrimgeour knew that already. "Thank you for letting us get the prophecy."

"It's the least we can do," said Scrimgeour, and shook his head. "Not even I'm allowed into the Department of Mysteries, however, so Bode and Croaker," he gestured to the two men in the plain black robes who might as well have been carved out of stone for all the emotion they exhibited, "will be your guides." He returned to Saitou. "And while they're getting the prophecy, shall we continue peace talks?"

Saitou disliked the idea of splitting up, but he nodded, understanding that they were bending the rules already. "Certainly, there are a few things we still need to settle," he said, and glanced at the group of friends. "Will they all be able to go?" he asked his English counterpart. "And what about the men I've assigned to guard them?"

"While I'm not stupid enough to think that I _could_ separate them," Scrimgeour replied with a small chuckle, "I'm afraid that I can't bend the rules any further than I already am. I'm supposed to insist on memory wipes for anyone who goes in there who hasn't signed an 'unspeakable' contract but…"

He cut off as Yugi's eyes sharpened and turned red, a glower settling over his features. He was not the only one, as both Harry and Joey were shooting him dirty looks of their own, and Hermione let out a sharp, angry hiss.

"There wouldn't be much point in allowing you to get the prophecy if you were to forget about it afterwards," Scrimgeour reassured them, backing down swiftly. "Now, if you'd like to follow Bode and Croaker," the pair stepped forward, "you can get what you came for."

The Speaker and his men went one way, Yugi and the others went the other, following Bode and Croaker to the lift. Yami took point, unhappy with the whole situation and well aware that they were being stared at as they went. He was not the only one who noticed that they were being watched. Joey, who was covering the rear, was trying to work out if it was curiosity or fear that trailed after them and figuring it for a little of both.

They were actually glad when they stepped out of the lift and into an almost deserted corridor. There were just two others on the torch-lit corridor, guarding the black door that was the entrance to the Department of Mysteries.

The two guards nodded to the group as they passed through the door and into the entrance chamber. Its black marble floor startled Harry for a moment before he realized that it was not standing water as he had first thought but rather solid, heavily polished rock.

The entrance chamber was a circular room, swamped in magic and lit by candles that emitted a cool, blue light. Yami tried to keep track of the twelve handleless doors as the room spun, throwing them off-balance and disorientating the group, leaving them dizzy.

"Hall of Prophecy," said Bode. His voice echoed around the room, the first words they had heard their 'guide' speak. The magic within the confusing room responded by opening the door to another room full of the biggest sets of bookcases that the gang had ever seen, each of them filled with row upon row of glass spheres mounted on ornate stands.

"This way," said Croaker, and he indicated down one of the aisles. They followed him, trying to pay attention to every turn as they headed deeper and deeper into the maze of bookcases, until they came to a halt in front of a bookcase towards the back of the room.

"That's the one," said Bode, pointing out a sphere labelled _'S.P.T to A.P.W.B.D Dark Lord and (?) Harry Potter.'_

Harry hesitated for a moment, examining it as well as the prophecies surrounding it. Some were dark, dull, almost like light-bulbs that had blown out. Others, like the one Bode had indicated, were glowing with a swirling, milky white light.

" _You all right, Harry?"_ Yugi asked over the link, evidently sensing Harry's nervousness even from the safety of his soul room.

 _`Yeah…I'm fine,`_ Harry replied. He steeled himself, took a deep breath, and lifted the prophecy from its shelf. The wards protecting the shelves objected for just a moment, before they fell away from his hand.

"How do I find out what it says?" Harry asked, looking at the two Unspeakables.

"Well you see," Bode began, when a green light flashed down the aisle behind him and struck him squarely in the back. He toppled face-first, then at the same time a second bolt took down Croaker, and before the four Clan members could react, they were surrounded by figures in dark robes and alabaster death masks. All of them had their wands pointed at the quartet.

Ruby red eyes, lit from within by the magic he was calling, glowered around at the attackers.

"Joey, you know what to do," said Yami.

"Wha…?" Harry had just enough time to ask before all thirteen of the Death Eaters vanished, along with the enraged former Pharaoh. The Shadows swirling around the floor were the only indication of where they had gone. "Joey, what?"

"Not now!" growled Joey, dragging Harry and Hermione towards the exit. "Run!"


	15. Battle in the Ministry

' _Three down, ten to go,'_ Atem mused as he darted between the shelves full of prophecies. It had not taken long to start thinning the herd. Even before he had explained the rules, two of the Death Eaters had tried to hex his friends and another had aimed his way. All three had earned a Penalty for doing so.

He had not had time to weave anything more complex, so the rules were really quite simple. Magic was banned for the duration of the game bar, of course, what held the game together and all the Death Eaters had to do to 'win' was catch him. If they managed that, his life was forfeit.

This time however, there was no way for the Death Eaters to interact with the world around them. The Shadows made sure of that, and if Atem made it to the door, the ten remaining Death Eaters would lose and be trapped in this limbo forever.

That was if they did not cheat.

Atem did not expect them to play fair. They were Death Eaters, vile disgusting scum who preyed on the weak and ambushed the strong. He could not know for certain, but he would not have been surprised if some of the men he was facing had been involved in the attack that had claimed his grandfather's life or had been there the night Kari had been murdered.

" _Easy, Yami,"_ Yugi's voice echoed in his head, trying to soothe him as he heard footsteps heading his way and darted down the aisle, _"we'll win and then they won't be able to hurt anyone else. But we need to keep our heads in the Game for that."_

The Pharaoh let out a quiet huff at his other half's words. Yugi was right. Getting riled up over what they had done would distract him. They were horrible wastes of space. Worthless, rotten souls with power they did not deserve, but the Death Eaters were his opponents and while he would much rather have sent all of them to the Shadow Realm without a second glance, Yugi had insisted that this would give their friends, who could have been caught in the crossfire if the Death Eaters had tried to fight back, a better chance at escaping.

He could hear the Death Eaters trying to coordinate. Their voices carried well in the silence that had fallen over the room once Joey had dragged Harry and Hermione out of the door. They seemed to lack a means of communicating quietly without magic, but he was not going to complain. Every time they tried to get a plan together, Atem could hear them and prepare to counter it. It was worryingly easy. In fact, Atem realised with a grimace, it was as if the Death Eaters he was playing against were the stupid ones, the cannon-fodder, the ones that were sent out first to wear down the enemies before the big guns moved in.

" _You don't think...?"_ Atem could sense Yugi paling as he reached the same conclusion.

' _This is just a diversion,_ ' the Pharaoh replied, nodding as he changed direction and narrowly avoiding being spotted by a pair of Death Eaters. _'_ We _need to end this and get to the others. They could be in trouble.'_

'Could be,' was wishful thinking and they both knew it. They darted towards the entrance to the Hall of Prophecy, only to find that three of the remaining Death Eaters were covering the door.

" _We need to lure them away,"_ Yugi's thought bounced across the link as Atem pulled away from the door, backing up behind a bookcase so he would not be seen by the guards, _"or we're not getting out that door."_

Atem was fully aware of that. The question was how. They could not take anything off the shelves to break them and cause a noise, there were spells in place to prevent just that, even if they had been able to interact with the world around them. He did not really want to show himself to the Death Eaters, not when he expected them to attempt to hex him on sight, despite the rules in place to prevent that from happening.

The choice was taken out of his hands when a Death Eater came from the other direction, spotted him and called out, "There he is!" He had to dart out from behind the shelving unit before that attracted too much attention. Unfortunately, the spotter had drawn at least three of his opponents to the nearby aisles and Atem's earlier suspicion was confirmed when he saw a bolt of green light coming straight at him. He ducked and rolled, allowing the blast to pass narrowly over his head and strike the Death Eater behind him. The man died on the spot, and the caster suffered a Penalty. The third Death Eater tried to tackle Atem, but he was able to get to his feet and keep running. The assailant's attempt went wide and he tumbled head-first into the shelves, which did not appear to register the impact in the slightest.

The Pharaoh kept going, even as he heard the Death Eater who had fallen calling out to his comrades. They converged on the sound, giving Atem a chance to get several aisles away and catch his breath. He listened carefully, grimacing when he realised that his opponents had _finally_ gotten smart and were talking in low enough voices that he could not hear them. With five of the original thirteen down and three more guarding the exit, covering all three direct routes to the door, that left five who were actively pursuing him and most likely involved in the quiet conference that was going on a few aisles over. He was doing well to have taken the number down by that many, but could not afford to relax yet. It only took one to catch him and then he would most likely be killed and Yugi would die with him. He needed a way to get the guards away from their posts so he could slip through the doors, but unlike the Death Eaters it did not suit him to cheat by using magic. He listened for the sounds of movement. The Death Eaters were breaking their huddle to enact whatever plan they had been hatching.

" _Hey Yami,"_ Yugi piped up, _"I have an idea."_

* * *

"Joey, wait!" Harry snapped, pulling his arm out of Joey's grip as he and Hermione were pulled out of the Hall of Memory. "We have to go back!"

"Yami's pulled them into a Shadow Game," said Joey, shaking his head and noting which pocket Harry had shoved the Prophecy sphere into. "There's nothing we can do to help him. You know that."

Harry let out a frustrated huff. He did know that to interfere in a Shadow Game was to court madness or death, but that did not mean he had to like leaving his friend to deal with that many Death Eaters singlehanded.

"I don't like this any more than you do," said Joey, looking frazzled as he pulled out his emergency portkey. "You two go ahead, I'll..." He let out a yelp as Hermione chucked one of her many bags at him and it exploded in a flash of red light just before it could hit. Harry swiftly wheeled around, drawing his wand and casting a stunner at the Death Eater who had just tried to blast his friend in one smooth movement. His enemy went down, but the eight others with him started casting spells of their own.

They had no idea which door they ducked into to avoid the spell fire, slamming the door shut behind them and sealing it with another spell before darting across the long, rectangular room. They hid behind the huge glass tank full of deep-green water in the middle of the room, which had some oddly shaped, pearly white objects swimming within. They could hear the Death Eaters trying to break in as Joey pushed the portkey into Hermione's hands. She tried to activate it, only for it to lie inert in her hand.

"Wha...? Hermione had just enough time to ask before the door exploded off its hinges, and then they were running and casting again.

"Wolf!" Harry yelled, but the huge, gold furred, winged creature that had saved him in the graveyard did not appear. Neither did his friends' Deck Leaders when they tried to call them up from the Monster World.

"Give us the Prophecy, Potter!" one of the Death Eaters demanded. Harry was pretty sure that it was Malfoy's father, but the mask covered his face so he could not be one hundred percent certain. "Give it to us and we'll spare your friends!"

"Yeah, right," Joey muttered under his breath. He glanced around, and then a mad thought came to him. "Reducto!" His spell hit the bottom of one of the tanks which shattered into what looked like a million pieces, depositing its contents all over their shocked pursuers. Joey herded the other two through the nearest available door. Behind them, the white things spilled across the floor towards the Death Eaters, who were slipping over each other as they tried to get up and re-join the chase. None of them dared to look back, but the sounds of screaming and choking that followed them painted ghastly images in their minds.

The room they dove into next was dimly lit, and so cold that they could see their breath in thick, white puffs. The floor had been dug out to form a gradually sloping pit, and at its heart was a raised stone dais. Upon the dais rested an ancient, crumbling stone archway. A tattered, black curtain fluttered in the space in the middle of the arch, in spite of the deathly stillness all around them. It reminded Joey of the way Yami wore Yugi's jacket across his shoulders like a cape. That was not the most unsettling part though. Coming from behind the curtain were whispering voices. Joey could not rightly discern what they were saying, only that they were voices he recognised. They were the voices of Domino's dead.

"What is that?" he asked, watching it warily. Before anyone could answer him, a resounding, high-pitched cackling caused them all to start. Plumes of vile, black smoke issued from the floor and walls, and awful shapes began to emerge into the room's tomb-like glow.

* * *

Just three more. Three more Death Eaters, or a straight run for the door and they could help their friends. He was so close now.

"Found him!" someone shouted.

Atem did not have time to react. He barely managed to hold back a scream as a bone-breaker hex struck his right arm and shattered it like glass. Part of him enjoyed the wailing of the Death Eater as the Shadows closed around them, even as his vision blacked out for a moment and he nearly collapsed. The Death Eater's cries attracted the attention of his colleague, who darted towards them. They cornered Atem, who only avoided smashing face-first into the floor by catching hold of a shelf with his remaining hand.

"You're dead now, Mutou," one of the Death Eaters sneered, but the chuckle that followed was nervous.

" _We're not caught yet,"_ said Yugi as he ripped control away from his other self. He had many more years experience at dodging thugs and bullies then Atem did, and ducked between the two Death Eaters, before narrowly avoiding an emerald-coloured hex. Clutching his ruined arm close, he sprinted for the next door. He was close enough that he could almost touch it, when someone tackled him from the left. Yugi screamed as he smashed hard into the floor.

"Got you, you little shit!" snarled the last Death Eater, wand pointed at Yugi's chest. "Now, what to do with you?"

The blow and the agony screaming through what remained of his arm had knocked Yugi senseless. He would be unconscious in seconds. The Pharaoh slipped back into control and tried to pull himself together. They were not caught yet. The wand meant nothing until the Shadows fell, and they were still in play. The Game was still on. They could still win. He just had to get up and make it through the door. Blood dripped down his arm and splashed on the floor. The Pharaoh felt a rising sickness when he realised a shard of bone was visible.

"Stay down!" the Death Eater snapped.

"G...go screw yourself!" Atem shot back as he struggled onwards. It was clear that they would not be of very much use in future battles, not in this sorry state. They needed to find their friends and get out of the Ministry as fast as they could. That meant finishing the Game.

The Death raised his wand once more and loosed a harsh, "Avada..." The Shadows were on him in a split-second, engulfing him rapturously. The Game was ended. The Pharaoh felt the magic around him recede, and staggered from the resultant shock to his spirit.

"Ma...Mahad!" he called in a strained voice. Nothing. Although he retained some small influence over his dark domain, the magician was beyond him. It felt as if the very walls were blocking his signal like a layer of lead.

" _If we can't summon,"_ Yugi's mental voice trembled as he tried to draw as much of the pain away from Atem as he could without knocking himself out, _"then the others won't be able to either."_

' _Harry's still in the area, so the portkeys didn't...'_

 _`Atem? Yugi?`_ Harry suddenly interrupted. He sounded pained, and both of them winced as they realised that if they could both feel the torment of their shared body's destroyed arm, then Harry would as well. _`What happened?`_

' _Never mind us, where are you?'_ Atem was shorter with Harry than he had intended, but Harry either did not notice or did not care. He passed on his location, and left them with a warning that made little sense to the Mutous, until Atem passed through the busted door and saw what had befallen the other group of Death Eaters. They were sprawled in twisted masses across the floor, limbs twitching, just about alive, but utterly insensate. Glowing tentacles like bundles of wires were wrapped tightly around them, attached to gruesome white brains. _'Oh...'_

* * *

"Harry!?" Hermione was panicking. She had seen him fall for no reason she could discern. His face was a ghastly shade of pale and he was gripping his right arm as if injured.

"Y...Yugi's hurt," Harry managed to choke out between gritted teeth, trying to push the second-hand torture aside in order to focus on the fact they were surrounded by Death Eaters. "His arm..."

"What's the matter, itty bitty baby Potty?" taunted Bellatrix Lestrange, drawing their attention back to their adversaries. "Is your oh-so-powerful Princeling hurt? Oh, I do hope so. I hope he's writhing in agony, it would be so wonderful to wat..."

"Shut! Up!" Harry growled, pain driving his anger to new heights as he cast something, not even he was sure what, but Bellatrix was not stupid enough to stand in its path and find out. She dove out of the way and the spell erupted against the wall with a bang, clumsily gouging out a sizeable section of it.

Joey could hear one of Bellatrix's underlings murmur something that sounded like, 'How had Potter managed wordless casting?' but he had no time to dwell on it, because their assailants were closing in for the final attack. They were all in over their heads. Even with Harry's new talent they were grossly outmatched, outnumbered and more than once it was only Hermione's decoy bags being hit instead of them that saved them from grievous injury.

The Death Eaters were toying with them, like a cat with a mouse. That much was obvious, and their heavy hitter was, if Harry was to be believed, severely injured. They were officially screwed. They had planned and planned for hours the night before, but they had never expected to lose their ability to summon. It was the one thing they had relied on to get them out of any mess they could get into. Their ace in the hole, and it was gone. Their one way to level the playing field was gone.

"Hand over the Prophecy, Potter," demanded one of the other Death Eaters. Not Bellatrix, but a masked man with Lucius Malfoy's voice. "And we'll let you and your friends live."

 _`Yeah, right,`_ Harry thought, looking around and trying to think of a solution. They were trapped on the edge of a pit, surrounded by Voldemort's men and apparently with nowhere to go. "This is what you want?" Harry asked, pulling the sphere out of his pocket and showing it to the Death Eaters. "What would you do if I...?" The Death Eaters froze in place when it slipped from his hand, and though Harry could only see Bellatrix's face, he got the impression they were watching him warily as he caught it halfway to the floor.

"Accio Prophecy sphere," cried Bellatrix, but nothing happened. The sphere stayed safely in Harry's grasp.

"Voldemort must want this pretty badly to risk sending you to invade the Ministry like this," Harry commented aloud, covering his friends and trying to push aside the echoes of pain from his link partners in order to focus. "Let my friends leave, now, and I'll give it to you."

"Harry!" Joey snapped at him, well aware, through far too many years of experience, that giving the bad guys what they wanted never ended well.

"Oooh! Is baby Potty giving up so soon?" Bellatrix taunted with a deranged laugh. "Give it to us first!" She moved closer to Harry, free hand outstretched.

"No way," Harry said, backing away a couple of steps and shaking his head. "My friends get to leave first."

Neither side dared move. They were locked in a staring contest as they both considered their next moves. The Death Eaters were too worried about Harry dropping the sphere, while Harry and his friends knew that if the Death Eaters attacked, they were toast. Without warning, many flashes of light rained down from above and slammed into the floor, streaming white clouds that swirled like fireworks and transformed into the members of the Order of the Phoenix, each one armed and ready for battle. Sirius broke ranks from the others and ushered the teens towards the exit.

"We were in the neighbourhood and thought you might need backup," he said, grinning at his godson, "so we called in the cavalry."

"Man are we glad to see you lot," said Joey. Now he felt like there was something he could actually do, he found breathing to be a lot easier than before. "Have you seen Yugi?"

"No," said Sirius with a frown, "wasn't he with you?"

Harry did not find a chance to answer as Bellatrix launched a fresh wave of spells at him and his godfather. Hermione and Joey were apparated away by Order members to a safer location, while Harry and Sirius were forced back. They leapt across the pit to take cover behind the giant archway, as countless killing curses sailed past them.

"Don't kill him yet!"

Harry and Sirius stopped dead in their tracks. The voice that had spoken was low, more a hiss than a true human tongue. The pure, untainted hatred it carried made Harry tremble in spite of himself, but yet more chilling was the horrible figure that materialised on the far side of the curtain. The Shadows climbed up the walls and swept aside everyone inside the room indiscriminately. Only the pair hiding behind the arch were unaffected. The air grew thick and oppressive, making it difficult to breathe, and the temperature suddenly plummeted several degrees.

' _Harry, go!'_ Atem's voice echoed around his head as he tried to pull himself together. The harsh cold and the sheer weight of the Shadows pressing down on him and his godfather were disorientating.

_`But...`_

"Harry Potter!"

Harry knew that voice, he knew it far too well. He wanted to react, but Sirius gathered his wits faster. The man grabbed him by the arm and he felt the first tingle in his skin that signalled apparition, but the effort was fruitless. They were trapped in the chamber with the foul new arrival.

"Come out and face me!"

Voldemort had arrived.

* * *

Atem guessed he was roughly three-quarters of the way across the room and halfway into physical shock even before the huge upsurge of Shadows. The sudden change in the magic levels threw him for six. There had not been a single person in the modern age with that much power over the darkness that had swallowed the room his friends were in. Well, none besides himself and Bakura. The psychotic version of Marik had come very close, yes, but none of them matched the evil strength he could feel from the room ahead of him.

"Mr Mutou..."

"Expelliarmus!" the Pharaoh wheeled around, pointing his wand with his left hand as he cast the disarming spell. The approaching wizard's wand flew towards Atem and clattered to the floor, rolling past him. It did not occur to him to pick it up, not once he realised who he had just disarmed. "Professor Dumbledore..."

"It's all right, Mr Mutou," said Dumbledore reassuringly as he moved carefully across the room. His features crinkled with worry as he took in Atem's dreadful state, and his voice hardened accordingly. "You need to leave. You can't fight like this."

The Pharaoh shook his head. "Not without the others," he said, then groaned and fell against the nearest available surface. His head was spinning.

"Pharaoh..."

"No," Atem cut him off.

The tension in the room thickened and both of them were quiet, though the room was not silent. The only sounds were the ones from the other room and the steady _drip-drip-drip_ of Atem's blood pooling on the floor. He glowered at Dumbledore and the headmaster stared right back at him, neither side backing down. The magic in the adjacent chamber swelled and both King and teacher broke the gaze to look towards it.

"Stay behind me," said Dumbledore firmly. The Pharaoh wanted to argue, but opted only to nod his head, scoop up the fallen wand and hand it back.

They emerged from the brain room to find the scene at a complete standstill. The Death Eaters and the Order members were all picking themselves groggily off the floor. Hermione and Joey were nowhere in sight, but Harry was facing down Voldemort, wand drawn, Prophecy in hand. Sirius was unconscious at the foot of a great stone archway. Harry cast a spell chain towards the Dark Lord, hurling spell after spell as he desperately fought to find an opening, even just a lucky shot. Not a single one landed. Voldemort was too fast and any attempts that came close were just absorbed by defensive spells. The Dark Lord appeared to tire of this game all too quickly, and unleashed a wave of Shadows with a sweep of his hand. Harry was sent skidding across the floor as the dark magic blasted him head-on. His wand went skittering one way, the Prophecy the other, and Voldemort triumphantly picked it up.

"This! This contains the Prophecy that ruined me?" Voldemort laughed. It was a cruel, vindictive laugh that Atem recognised, although he could not place where from. "The Prophecy that I've obsessed over for the last fifteen years?"

Atem only paid a fraction of his attention to the Dark Lord's ramblings. He was more focussed on Dumbledore, with leapt across the pit with remarkable agility for a man his age, superimposing himself between the two opponents.

Voldemort smirked. "About time you arrived, Dumbledore," he said in a way that was almost cordial. That was worrying, because everyone knew from the stories that Dumbledore was the one man Voldemort ever feared.

"Drop the Prophecy, Tom," Dumbledore's reply was calm but firm, "we both know it doesn't matter to you anymore, don't we?"

The Dark Lord snorted. "True," he said, looking into the sphere and smirking, "but it is amusing to watch you little ants scramble for it." He looked over at Atem, who was leaning against the doorframe. His skin was bleached and clammy, his expression distant as he continued to lose blood. "This one thing," Voldemort went on, "this one little thing allowed me to lure everyone who could possibly destroy me into this one room. Even the all-powerful Pharaoh risked his life for this little sphere."

With a wave of Dumbledore's wand, Harry's own flew back to his hand. "Go to your friend," the headmaster ordered, his gaze never wavering from the Dark Lord.

"But Sirius..." Harry began.

"Now," Dumbledore's tone brokered no argument. Harry hesitated, glancing at his godfather. "He'll be fine, go."

Harry paused a moment longer before nodding his head and moving to dart across the gap to reach Atem's side. He got halfway around the room before Voldemort snorted again. "I don't think so. Avada Ked..."

Before he could finish his incantation, Dumbledore cut him off with a spell chain of his own. "Both of you get out of here now!" he roared.

"Don't you want them to hear the best part?" Voldemort taunted and counterattacked at the same time, stunning the Order and his own men alike as he actually managed to push Dumbledore backwards. He had the headmaster fighting defensively in a matter of just seconds. "About how this fortuitous increase of my power was the Pharaoh's fault? How I survived the Shadow Game because of a backdoor HE created?"

The Pharaoh's already ghostly face twisted into a mask of abject horror as he finally recognised the power cascading around the monster. He recognised the pain and rage and hatred suffocating the atmosphere, and knew without a doubt that in his current state there was no possible way for him to defeat the creature posing as Lord Voldemort.

"That's right, Pharaoh!" the monster crowed with hideous glee. "You gave me the power to survive the Shadow Game, all because you couldn't admit defeat! If you had just died like you were supposed to, I wouldn't be trapped in this mortal body! But I should be thanking you!" His voice lowered, turning from almost theatrical joy to sinister self-confidence. "If your precious little light hadn't shown me the back door, I would have died."

" _I did this?"_ Yugi trembled, shock and despair coursing across the link and resonating with Atem's own.

Harry tried to push Atem towards the door, realising that between the physical shock from blood loss and the mental shock from this revelation, his friends were helpless. The Pharaoh refused to be moved, however, as every part of him had locked up.

"He was the one who showed me that as long as one part of me survived, I could pull myself back from the dead," the Dark Lord went on, "and I've had my claws in this one ever since you fed me part of his soul. All I had to do was let Bakura die as the Game's 'tribute' and pull myself across to this body. There wasn't enough of his soul left to resist me. The Prophecy no longer matters because Voldemort no longer exists!"

"Y...you're Zorc..." Atem choked out.

"That's right, Yugi," the demon's voice echoed derisively, spitting out the words like a bitter pill, "and we're entwined forever. As long as both of you remain on this side of the Gates to the Afterlife...so too shall I." His features contorted into a cruel sneer. "So let's make sure that doesn't change any time soon." Zorc blasted Dumbledore, and the headmaster crashed into the wall behind with an awful sound. He then wheeled on the shell-shocked Pharaoh and sent a bright green spell careening towards him.

Harry tackled Atem out of the spell's path. They collided with the wall, and silver-sharp pain shredded the Pharaoh's nervous system. He fell in a heap, fighting to remain conscious and losing badly. Zorc grinned and moved in for the kill, but then Dumbledore was on his feet and hurling blasts at him. Zorc battered these aside with ease, laughing cruelly the entire time.

"You old fool! I cannot die!" he jeered venomously. "For who amongst your people would be willing to destroy the soul of a friend?"

Harry knew the answer. He knew how to take away Zorc's immortality. If he let Yugi die here, it would be another five-thousand years before the pair of them had a chance to move on and Zorc would be able to torture and torment the world for just as long. The key to the demon's destruction lay far away in Egypt. He just had to get Atem out of here first.

"Harry, go!" cried Sirius as he pushed himself to his feet. He had regained consciousness during Zorc's preening and had joined the fight on Dumbledore's side. "Take Yugi and get the hell out of here! Now!"

There was a moment, one brief moment when Harry was torn between leaving Sirius and saving Yugi and Atem, then he nodded and dragged the Pharaoh from the room. It did not take long for one of the Order members to catch up to them, and Harry almost hexed him instinctively before he realised it was Remus Lupin, who gathered up Atem in his arms.

"I've got him, Harry," he said, "hold onto me."

The moment Harry grabbed on, he apparated away, leaving Dumbledore, Sirius and the remaining members of the Order of the Phoenix to their battle.

Zorc sensed their departure and loosed a furious howl. The Death Eaters had already taken this opportunity to flee, escaping from the room before apparating to safety. They had not signed up to work for some immortal demon or whatever the hell was now wearing their master like a suit, and had no intention of hanging around while it engaged the Lord of Light and his allies in mortal combat. The dereliction did not bother Zorc in the slightest. His host's servants were all tied to him anyway by the marks on their arms. They would return to him when he called or he would hunt them down and devour their souls. He was too busy being pissed off that the elderly wizard in front of him had ruined his carefully laid trap. He turned every spell Voldemort knew, everything he had absorbed from his host's mind, against his adversaries. He lost the Prophecy sphere, no longer caring for it as they pushed back and forth. Two of the meddlers hurled spells from another direction, barely missing him.

"Don't help!" cried Dumbledore. "Get out of here! Protect Harry and the Pharaoh!"

That brief lapse in concentration was all Zorc needed. He unleashed another wave of Shadows, and while Sirius was quick enough to dive under it, Dumbledore was not so nimble. The Order of the Phoenix watched, terrified, as their leader was pinned against the wall like a butterfly.

"You're done, old man," sneered Zork, his grin so wide it threatened to split his inhuman face across the middle. He walked slowly and deliberately towards Dumbledore, ignoring Sirius, who had taken the chance to pounce upon the Prophecy. "You were an amusing distraction, so I'll do you the courtesy of telling you exactly what I plan to do once you're gone. First I'll smash your Order of the Phoenix like a nest of ants, then I will hunt down the Pharaoh's court, and before his very eyes I shall subject them to torments that even the worst tyrants in history could not conceive of. I will prolong their agony until I tire of them, and only then, when the Pharaoh has been driven to insanity...I will crush the life from him."

He fought down the urge to laugh, anticipation bubbling inside of him like boiling lava. "And do you know the best part? In another five-thousand years, I'll get to do it all over again, only that time, you won't be around to get in my way."

Dumbledore shook his head, and threw up one final, desperate shield to cover the Order's escape, before the Shadows wrenched the wand from his grasp. "You're wrong," he said. "You might win the battle here but you cannot win the war. As long as there is light in the world, there will always be someone who will stand up to you, be it Harry or the Pharaoh or another brave soul who refuses to let you walk all over them. You will never have the world you desire."

"We shall see," said Zorc, and pressed his wand underneath Dumbledore's chin. "Well, you won't. Reducto."


	16. Fate

Joey was confused for the ten seconds it took for him to re-orientate himself and take in the gates of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Then it hit him that they had been teleported away from the fight at the Ministry of Magic and dropped off here. Considering that they had been outmatched and outnumbered, it would not have been a bad thing but there was an issue. A rather big issue. Both Yugi and Harry had been left behind.

"Take us back!" Joey furiously demanded as he glared around at the pair of mages who had side-along apperated them to the school gates, far away from the battle.

"So you can do what?" Moody, the real Moody, asked derisively, "Stand around and get yourself and others killed because you tried to fight someone who's older, better trained and sneakier than you? You've not even taken your fifth year yet and if you could summon those creatures of yours, you would have done by now. If you go back now, you'll get killed."

"But..." Joey trailed off when Hermione put a hand on his arm.

"Moody's right. Even if Harry and Yugi are still there, we'd be in the way." She murmured quietly as he glowered down her. Her expression told him that she liked it as little as he did, but as per usual she had a much more level head about the situation. "They'd never forgive themselves if we got killed going back for them."

"The others will be here with your friends in a minute." Moody's accomplice, a young woman whose hair could not seem to make up its mind what colour it was, spoke up, trying to reassure them. "I'm sure they're fine."

Joey let out an irritated huff. No, they were not 'fine.' He knew that already. Even before Harry had nearly fallen, clutching his right arm, Joey had felt like someone had grabbed his heart and squeezed. Just for a moment, but the sensation and the lingering ache afterwards was worryingly familiar. There was nothing physically wrong with him, but he knew what had caused it.

It was a warning. An alarm call. A scream for backup.

Yugi was hurt. Badly.

Harry's collapse and explanation had only confirmed what he had already known. On its own that would have been bad enough, but the discomfort had only intensified as time went on which was why he wanted to go back so badly. He did not need to though as Professor Lupin arrived in a stream of white and a swirl of white smoke which deposited the werewolf and Harry amongst their group.

Professor Lupin rushed past them, Harry in tow and carrying something in his arms. Hermione did not get a glimpse of what he had, but Joey did and he froze up in horrified shock for a moment before rushing to catch up, all thoughts of going back to the Ministry forgotten.

The trip to the hospital wing had never seemed longer as they raced through the surprisingly full corridors and Joey did not know what to do. Instead he hesitated by the infirmary's door as the werewolf laid Atem on the nearest bed and called for the school's healer.

"Yugi..." He breathed as he stepped into the ward, Hermione's shocked gasp going unnoticed in the face of the reality of seeing his best friend led on a hospital bed, unconscious, deathly pale and bleeding profusely.

The nurse swept into action, drafting Lupin and the young woman, who had followed them and was apparently called Tonks, the moment she spotted her patient. Harry and the others were swept to one side and ordered to rest, but none of them could settle down.

The Millennium Puzzle, the home for the spirit of the ancient Pharaoh currently possessing the body, reacted badly to any healing spell that Madam Pomfrey tried to cast. Lupin tried to remove it, only to get blasted across the room. Madam Pomfrey theorised that it was trying to protect the swiftly fading King from any more foreign magicks.

Harry knew better, knew that it was protecting itself from harm, not Atem. He could sense the energies of the Puzzle roiling dangerously and with no active mind to guide it he worried that they would just keep reacting, preventing his friend from getting the treatment he needed.

"Hey!" Tonks protested as he darted over to Atem's bedside and put his hand on the Puzzle, falling silent when he was not sent flying like his former teacher had been.

"It's alright." Harry reassured her as he took the Puzzle from Yugi, trying not the panic as he easily lifted the chain from around Atem's neck and left Yugi in his place without either of them twitching a muscle, "The Puzzle knows me. I'm the only other person who can wield it."

The moment he moved aside, able to feel the Pharaoh's unconscious mind resting within the golden trinket, Madam Pomfrey started work, grimacing when she realised that it was not as simple as fixing a broken arm. "Hexed." The nurse grouched as she worked, switching tactics to try and stabilise her patient. "I can do my best, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to completely heal this without regrowing the bones from scratch."

That was not what Yugi's friends needed to hear. They looked at each other, worried as the nurse flitted about, working fast to stem the blood flow and try and set the bone shards of Yugi's destroyed right arm back into their proper place.

Atem awoke as the nurse, with help from Lupin, managed to get some blood restorative potion down Yugi's throat. The former Pharaoh took spirit form, seeming fine as he turned all of his attention on his unconscious light. Joey and Hermione were relieved by the hardiness of the spirit before them, but Harry could sense that Atem's mind was a mess. Guilt swirled through him as he took in Yugi's condition, blaming himself for his successor's dire state. On top of that the former Pharaoh's mind seemed to have stalled, unable to, or not wanting to comprehend the truth of what had been said down in the archway room.

 _`Atem?`_ Harry asked, worried when the Pharaoh didn't seem to hear him. _`Yami!`_ The spirit of the long deceased Pharaoh started, turning to look at him. ` _We need to tell the others.`_

' _I...don't know how...'_ Atem admitted, sounding unsure for the first time since Harry had met him, his gaze turning back to Yugi, whose mind had yet to stir and whose arm was still refusing to heal properly.

"I'm going to have to regrow the bone to get rid of that or put it in a cast and hope it heals naturally." Madam Pomfrey worried as she examined the spell paralysed limb, noting where the bone shards had fused back together in most places. However the diagnosis spells clearly showed that there was still a distinct and not particularly clean break where the spell had first impacted with Yugi's arm alongside a spiderweb of hairline fractures that extended from that point.

"There's no time for that." Sirius informed them, having entered the room in time to hear her. He looked worse for wear, wand in one hand and Prophecy in the other. "We need to know whatever the hell Yugi knows about that thing possessing Voldemort and then they need to get out of England."

"What thing possessing Voldemort?" Joey demanded, wondering what he had missed.

"Zorc's alive." Harry told them when Atem didn't seem to be able to, "He's possessing Voldemort."

"WHAT!?" Harry winced at Joey's bellow, especially when agony lanced across the link and Yugi awoke with a whimper.

"Keep it down, Mr Wheeler." Madam Pomfrey huffed as she helped Yugi sit up. Harry felt the damage as if it was his own arm in such a bad way, giving him some idea of how much pain his friend was actually in. Still, relief was clear on Yugi's features when he saw that his friends were okay. It was a stark reminder to Harry that as long as the recently ascended Pharaoh's friends were okay, Yugi's own discomfort did not mean much. At least not to Yugi.

"How can Zorc be alive?" Sirius demanded of Atem, who grimaced and was about to tell him when Yugi's voice, trembling slightly and full of the pain he was trying to suppress, answered instead.

"It's my fault." Yugi looked at the floor as he spoke, his good hand scrunching up the blanket as his hand balled into a fist, "If it wasn't for me, he wouldn't be here. He survived because I brought Yami back."

No one knew what to say to that. Silence echoed around the hospital wing until Hermione got up, walked over to Yugi's side and sat down on his left, "You had to revive Atem or Zorc would have killed everyone." Hermione reminded him, as she smoothed out the blanket and took Yugi's good hand in hers. "If it wasn't for you, the world would have ended."

Yugi didn't reply. She was right, he knew she was, but it still felt like he had brought this down on them.

"So what's the plan now?" Harry asked, looking between Yugi and Atem, "Because he said that as long as both of you are here, he can't die."

"There's only one thing we can do." Atem borrowed control to speak, flinching as he found out exactly how much pain Yugi had been suppressing. He quickly clamped down on it to spare Harry and Yugi. "If he's telling the truth, then I have to leave." He could sense Yugi's mental pain at that blunt statement. He did not like it much better than his light did, but he did not believe the demon had been lying. The truth was too painful for that.

"Which means getting to Egypt." Joey grimaces, "And talking to Marik."

"I have Marik's number." Yugi said, switching back into control, "But I don't think we should stay here any longer than we have to. There's too many people here. Not even Professor Dumbledore's influence will keep Zorc..." Yugi trailed off at the look that crossed Sirius's face.

"What happened?" Joey demanded, not sure he wanted to know.

"Dumbledore..." Sirius's voice cracked and his features contorted with grief, telling the group the news without actually telling them.

Joey swore, loudly and slammed his fists onto his bed, while Harry stared at his Godfather in stunned shock. Hermione burst into tears and Yugi, who was unable to process this news on top of everything else, hugged her with his good arm.

"We'll take them with us." Yugi confused everyone to start with, until he added, "Everyone here who wants to come."

"Yugi?" Joey asked, unsure if his friend really knew what he was getting into.

"I won't leave them." Yugi told him, his mind made up, "If Zorc comes here, looking for us, he'll kill them, or worse. I can't abandon them to that."

"Moving everyone is going to take organisation, time, effort." Sirius tried to put him off, "There's no..."

"Then I'll make time." Yugi's reply was firm and determined. Joey let out a soft sigh, recognising Yugi's mood as the same one that had brought them the refugees that were already living on Duelist Kingdom.

"I'll go make the call to Duelist Kingdom." Joey offered, getting up and heading for the door, "Maybe one of the others can think of a way to transport that many people."

"One sec." Harry held up a hand, "Wolf!" He called with both his voice and his magic. There was still no sign of his Deck Leader. Harry could feel the magic moving, trying to obey his call, but he got no reply. "While you're out there, can you ask them if they're having trouble summoning?" He asked, "I still can't call my deck."

"While you're doing that," Madam Pomfrey grumbled, turning to Yugi as Joey left, Lupin and Tonks in tow. "We need to discuss options to heal your arm the rest of the way."

"What's the fastest?" Yugi replied, causing his friends to hiss and making Atem wince.

"The fastest isn't necessarily the best option." The nurse warned him, "There's no guarantee that the bone will regrow back properly without rest."

"Will I be able to use it if you put it in a cast?" Yugi asked, thinking. He was fully aware he did not have time to convalesce. Zorc could be at the school at any moment. He was pretty sure that the only reason they had not been invaded yet was because the demon was toying with them.

"Yes but it will hurt. A lot." She warned him, "And you risk damaging it for good if you don't rest, whichever you pick..."

* * *

"Yugi wants to do what?!" Tristan yelped, hoping he had heard wrong.

"You heard me." Joey snorted, "I spoke to Professor McGonagall before I called you. She thinks there's about two hundred people here. We probably won't get all of them following us, but..."

"That's two hundred people to transport and find places for." Tristan acknowledged, pacing as he talked and trying to ignore the way people were staring at him. "Yugi doesn't make things easy, does he?"

"You don't know the half of it." His friend's tone took on a frustrated tint, "That's the GOOD news."

"What do you mean?" Tristan could feel the headache coming on. He had known something was wrong, he had felt his heart clench, felt the same ache that had struck him when Yugi had been seriously hurt before. "Yugi's okay, isn't he?"

"Yes...no, I don't know. He got hit by a hex and his arm's so broken the healer doesn't know if she can fix it right. Ever." Joey sighed, concern obvious in his tone as Tristan let out a string of swear words, "And that's STILL not the best of it."

"What could be worse than that?" Tristan huffed, pissed off that he hadn't been there to try and stop his friend from getting that injured.

"Zorc, the demon that killed Atem during Shadowmorn? The one that caused the Shadows to go nuts?" Joey asked, causing Tristan to freeze up. He knew Yugi had miraculously managed to bring the Pharaoh back and win the day, but he had hoped to never hear that name again. "Still alive."

"That's not funny." Tristan growled at his friend when the shock had worn off a little, "You shouldn't joke about that."

"I wish I was. Gods, do I wish I was joking about this." Joey retorted, his tone as irritated as it was worried, "Zorc's possessing Voldemort. Has been since Shadowmorn."

Tristan's swearing disturbed those pretending not to listen in to the conversation and the scowl he wore as he glowered around at them caused them to flee. Once the room was clear he growled out, "So when Domino burned..."

"Zorc, not Voldemort." Joey agreed.

"What does Yugi need us to do?" Tristan asked, aware of how close it had come during the last bout with the demon even without his friend suffering from a serious injury.

"We need to get him to Egyp..."

"Atem wants to leave? Now!? Is he crazy?!" Tristan demanded, cutting Joey off.

"There's no choice!" Joey snarled back, "As long as Yugi and Yami are a team, Zorc can't die! Atem has to go."

"But it took both of them to beat him last time!" Tristan pointed out, wondering how the hell they were getting around that problem.

"I know..."

There was silence on the line as Tristan started pacing again, trying to think of something, anything, that could help.

"We'll figure out how to kill him later." Joey finally broke the silence, his voice tired, "We have to get Yugi and everyone else somewhere safe first, right?"

"Right." Tristan agreed, glad to have something he could focus on. "We can't get any Duel Monsters to you, we tried the moment we knew something had gone wrong. The Japanese Ministry contacted us too, Saitou got out safely but he couldn't leave England via any magical methods, only mundane ones."

"So planes, trains, boats..." Joey thought it over. "Zorc knows about modern methods of transport, he's going to be staking out any major airports and we couldn't hire a plane big enough to carry everyone without attracting attention anyway..."

"Do you really want to stick that many spellcasters on a train?" Tristan asked him, "I mean they're mostly driven by computers nowadays and we both know that Kaiba's tech is the only type out there that can handle massive amounts of magic."

"So boat." Joey huffed, "That'll take months."

"You're an idiot." Tristan retorted, "You don't have to go all the way to Egypt by boat. We can get Duel Monsters to France, we can even get them halfway across the channel, but it's like there's a dome of Shadows around the island. Not even the Dark Magician can get through. And he tried."

"So all we've got to do if convince some Captain to drive two hundred people out into the middle of the ocean, let them all disappear using their Duel Monsters and then pretend nothing happened? That'll be easy." Joey's tone was thick with sarcasm.

"Bribe them?" Tristan snorted, "Yugi has the money. Hell, I bet the Japanese Ministry would refund it, since they were supposed to extract you."

"Point." Joey allowed, sounding thoughtful, "Look I've got to get a hold of Marik, so I'd better go. I'll let you know the moment we're leaving."

"You'd better. I'll start getting the island ready. You do realise your sister and her teacher are going to chew you out when you get back right? You were supposed to be coming back in one piece."

Joey just chuckled nervously in reply. "Talk to you later bro." With that he put the phone down.

Tristan stared at the handset for a little longer, unable to think where the hell he would need to start in order to get the island prepared for that many people. And he had to get the infirmary ready. With that many people coming, he couldn't help but wonder if the infirmary wasn't going to be overwhelmed, or how secure it would be for Yugi.

"Is it safe?" Dani, Hermione's cousin, asked, having been sent for by a few scared refugees who had never seen him explode like that before.

"Yes." Tristan huffed, "No...can you gather the DuelDMUers? We have a hell of a lot of work to do, little time to do it in and a huge battle coming up."

"What huge battle? What's happened to Hermione!?" Dani demanded, worried for the cousin who was currently trapped behind enemy lines.

"Nothing. She's fine. Just call the others. I don't want to have to explain this more than once."

* * *

Professor McGonagall did not want to make the announcement that she had to make to the diners who were gathered within the Great Hall. She knew it would break so many of those taking shelter here, believing they were safe under Dumbledore's protection.

Not that she was sure she could make herself heard over the loud babbling of the assembled crowd. Far too many people had seen Yugi being rushed up to the infirmary to be able to keep it a secret that he was in the castle, along with Harry and some of their friends and a lot of people were speculating that it had something to do with the fact that all the Shadow-Touched had lost the ability to summon within the last twenty-four hours.

None of the Clan members had come down to lunch, something she was actually quite glad of. She did not think they were in any fit state to get swarmed by people asking questions. Instead she had asked the House Elves to take them up a meal while she gave the announcement that would cause panic in this small, settled gathering.

She let everyone fill up on food, knowing that no one would have the stomach to do so once she had spoken and when everyone had talked themselves out and stuffed their faces. When she saw that people were getting up, she tapped her goblet with her fork, the simple ringing noise carrying easily in the hallway, catching everyone's attention.

She noted that Yugi, his damaged arm in a cast and tucked into a sling, slipped into the room, his friends backing him up. They stayed near the back of the room while everyone's attention was on her.

"Everyone, please sit down." McGonagall started as she stood, causing those who had been able to leave to take their seats again. "I have an announcement to make."

There was a low murmuring for a few moments as everyone glanced at everyone else, looking confused and concerned and then turned back to the teachers' table. McGonagall let out a soft breath, not wanting to say the words she knew she had to, knowing that they would cause the assembled as much grief as it had her.

"It is with great sorrow, that I have to announce that Headmaster Dumbledore is dead." She told them. Before she could continue, there was a scream and the diners started panicking, screaming and shouting and crying and wailing causing the hall to erupt in such noise that she had to cover her ears.

Which was why she missed it when Yugi first bellowed for quiet. In her defence, most people missed it, enough people quietened down, however, that when Yugi yelled, "Everyone! Be! Quiet!" She, along with everyone else in the hall heard it.

When silence fell across the assembly, she invited Yugi onto the plinth that the teacher's table rested on. He joined her, those who had shot to their feet moving aside to clear a path. Harry followed him, his hand resting on his wand as he guarded his wounded friend and leader.

"I know you're scared." Yugi started, nodding to the deputy headmistress before he turned and faced the crowd, glad to have Harry at his side and his friends there if he needed them, "Professor Dumbledore has been here for longer than you can remember. Standing where I am, teaching you, guiding you, protecting you. And now he's gone and suddenly everything seems a little darker."

There was a low mumbling, but no one spoke up as Yugi continued, "It's okay to be afraid, okay to worry about what's going to happen next, about your loved ones, about whether everything's going to be okay at the end of the day. But if you panic, if you let that fear rule you then the darkness wins."

"But Dumbledore..."

"The headmaster was a great man." The Pharaoh spoke, his voice carrying over the woman speaking, causing her to fall silent. "And he gave his life doing what he knew was right. Trying to protect everyone, even though he knew he couldn't win. He knew that the thing he was fighting was stronger than him, more experienced than him and still he fought, refusing to let it achieve its goals and making sure that his people got away safely. His death wasn't in vain, because we stand here today and we still have a chance to destroy it."

He looked around, scanning the crowds, trying to work out how many of those in front of him would take him up on his offer, "I don't expect you all to follow me and my Clan into battle, but Voldemort will come here, looking for anyone who took shelter under Dumbledore's wings and he will try to torture and kill anyone who's still here." He let them murmur amongst themselves for a few moments, not wanting to have to explain to them exactly what they were fighting unless he had to, "I am willing to take everyone here with me when I leave with my friends. The school isn't safe anymore. Dumbledore's influence is gone and no matter how strong the wards are, they can't protect you forever. Anyone who wants to come with us is welcome to take refuge in my home until this is all over. Longer if you need it. You'll be safer there than you would be here."

"How could we all fit in your house?" Someone asked derisively.

"I don't have a house," Yugi smiled slightly, though there were hints of grief there if you knew to look, "I have a castle and an island. There's plenty of room for everyone. I have plenty of building materials and can easily get more, so anyone who doesn't want to live in the castle, who wants a place of their own, is free to use their magic to build one. I only ask that we share our skills. Together we're stronger than if we stand alone and if we work together, if we fight together, we'll not only be able to make the island somewhere to hide, but a home that we can defend."

The murmuring turned from derisive and confused to interested and slightly excited. At least until someone asked, "And what happens when he comes looking for us there?"

"He won't." Yugi reassured them, "He doesn't know where my island is and I will be luring him far away from it. I know how to defeat him and the moment I know you're all safe, I will be putting my plan into motion. I swear I won't let him harm anyone on my island."

"And what are you going to do with a broken arm?" One of the parents of the Slytherins demanded.

"Everything I can. More if I have to." The Pharaoh's reply was firm, "As will every single member of my Clan and my Court. Because we have to, because no one else can or will. And I will accept help from any of you. Anyone who is willing to fight with us, to try and protect those you care about is welcome to stand at our side when the battle starts. But that won't be until everyone who is willing to come with me is safe."

That seemed to appease the man as Yugi asked, "Now will anyone who is coming with me please move to the left hand side of the room, while anyone who isn't goes to the right? I need to know numbers for transporting you all."

There was a moment's pause and then the greater majority of those assembled moved to the left. Those who did not looked up to the stage, hesitating.

"And what if we don't?" One of them asked.

"I will be releasing the house elves into the Pharaoh's charge, sending them to help you all on the island." Professor McGonagall spoke up. "Anyone who doesn't go with the Pharaoh is welcome to remain here, but you will have to provide your own food and clean your own clothes. And you will be the only ones here when Voldemort arrives."

That did it. The last of the horde moved to the left, all bar a small group of the parents of Slytherin students, all of whom had gone to stand with their recently acquired friends on the opposite side of the room.

"Pharaoh," Professor McGonagall turned to Yugi, "The house elves of Hogwarts are at your command and if I might be so bold as to ask for your sanctuary, as well as safety for everyone in the Order of the Phoenix?"

"Of course, Professor." Yugi nodded, "I will require your assistance. I have plenty of children but no school yet and no teachers. It isn't a big issue until September, but..."

"If I'm not needed here, I will apply to teach there." McGonagall promised, "And if I am, I have plenty of people I can recommend."

"We'll talk about it at a later date." The Pharaoh smiled at her before turning back to those who had agreed to follow him, noting that Joey was taking a head count, "I need everyone to gather their things as quickly as possible and make sure you have everything. We won't be coming back here once we leave. Ask the house elves for help if you need to, but don't mistreat them. My High Priestess," He pointed to Hermione, his tone turning jokey, trying to lighten the mood and boost morale, "Will have my guts for garters if any of my house elves are abused."

There was a light chuckle from some of the people on the left and then they filed out. Yugi winced as a couple of the parents on the right followed their children out and he heard them start yelling.

Once the room was empty for everyone besides the Clan and the Deputy Headmistress, McGonagall turned to Yugi, "I need to go pack, but be assured, when you go to fight, the Order will back up your plan in every way we can."

Harry watched her go, amused that Yugi seemed to have everything so easily in hand. "So, what is the plan?"

"Honestly?" Yugi asked, confidence disappearing behind a slightly worried grin, "I'm still working on it." He admitted, thinking, "I think I need to hear the Prophecy."

"But we know it's false." Joey looked confused, "Zorc said..."

"Zorc only knew what Voldemort knew about it." Yugi shook his head, "And if Voldemort knew everything about the Prophecy, he would have done more about it before Zorc possessed him. There might be a clue, something we can use."

"Alright." Harry nodded, pulling the sphere out of his pocket.

"Not here." Yugi interrupted. "We'll head for the Monster Wing. We'll have plenty of privacy there."

* * *

"You're serious?" Ishizu breathed, "Zorc..."

"That's what Wheeler told me." Marik agreed, sounding furious, "Yugi's bringing the Millennium Items to Egypt to do the ceremonial duel, finally. Of course this could have been ended before this happened if you had actually done your duty and told him when he got his memories back!"

"Do not lecture me on duty, Marik!" Ishizu snapped back, "I am not the one who tried to murder the Pharaoh and his reincarnation in cold blood and take his place on the throne!"

"That was years ago!"Marik snarled, "And it doesn't matter now. It's too late to fix it. Now we have to deal with the fact that even if Yugi rips his soul in two again and kills half of himself, we'll still have Zorc running around in a Dark Lord suit."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. More importantly, did you tell them?" Ishizu asked, worried, "The Pharaoh and Yugi? That this will leave a gap in Yugi's soul?"

"You mean the former Pharaoh and his replacement." Marik grumbled, "You do realise we have a real problem?"

"What do you...his replacement?" Ishizu asked, her tone shot through with misunderstanding and fear. "He's gotten a replacement?"

"Atem died again and returned to the Puzzle. Yugi took the throne in his place. The Shadow-Touched look to him now." Her brother growled down the phone at her, "Which is why we have a real issue."

"The Ceremonial Duel..." Ishizu breathed, "Oh...oh dear..."

"So…not only could the rules result in a death we really don't want, but Zorc knows that's where they're going to be heading." Marik glared down the phone, "He'll come and he'll be waiting for them and they will die before it can even _be_ an issue. This is why you should have told him. So they could go to Egypt and get it over with, before Yugi could take the throne and Zorc could get a new host."

"I will prepare the tribe." Ishizu reassured him, "And we'll have the chamber ready for them. Are you going to show them the way?"

"They're going to meet me at the ruins of the shop when they're ready and I'll bring them directly to Kul Elna." Marik assured her, still angry with his sister. "Just make sure everything's ready and pray Zorc doesn't get there first." With that he hung up.

If Kaiba had not caused him so many problems, if Ishizu had told the Pharaoh, if he had just been able to get ahold of Yugi... And now everything was wrong and the world could end.

Zorc lived and half of the Pharaoh would have to die to allow them to kill him. Except without the Pharaoh, the whole Pharaoh, they couldn't kill the demon...

"We're screwed." Marik breathed as he leant against the nearest wall and slid down it, bringing his knees up and resting his head on them. "We are so screwed."

* * *

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies ..."

"That's helpful." Joey snorted as Harry paced back and forth, trying to think things through.

"No, it is." Yugi shook his head, sitting back on the sofa, wanting to pace it out himself. He always thought better on the move than he did sat still, but the others refused to let him do more than necessary because of his arm. "Because it means Voldemort is still in there. Zorc can't have gotten rid of him. He's not the one with the power to do so."

"That doesn't help us get rid of Zorc though." Hermione pointed out.

"Umm, I hate to ask." Joey winced, "But Zorc's in Voldemort, right?" Yugi nodded, confused as to where he was going with this, "And even if we manage to send Atem on and get rid of Zorc, if the body's still there, Voldemort's still going to be there, right?"

"Oh..." Hermione flinched, "Which means…"

"Someone's going to have to kill the body Zorc's using." Harry said slowly, "And if we don't want Voldemort hanging around even longer for some obscure magical reason, it's going to have to be me."

There was silence for a few moments as that sank in. Harry was not a fool, he was well aware that if Atem and Yugi struggled to defeat the demon now possessing the Dark Lord, he did not stand a hope in hell.

"Technically, you only have to strike the final blow." Yugi finally broke the silence as Atem took spirit form and leaned against the arm of the sofa. "As long as you're the one to 'vanquish' him, the prophecy is fulfilled. It doesn't say you can't have as much help as you like."

"That still leaves us with the problem of Zorc being in Voldemort." Joey grumbled. "How're we getting around that?"

"Egypt." Yugi's reply was soft and sad as he looked at the floor. He did not think he was ready for Atem to go, but if he was honest with himself he was not certain he would ever really be ready to let go of his best friend and the other half of his soul. "He's only immortal as long as we're both on this side of the gates. The moment Atem goes, he's just as mortal as anyone else."

"Mortal, yes." Harry pointed out as he leaned against the wall and banged the back of his head against it gently, "But not powerless."

"He can't be as powerful as he was in the Game." Atem took control and immediately wondered how Yugi was managing to think so clearly through the miasma of fatigue and dizziness caused by the painkilling potions within his system. "If he was, he would have drawn the Shadows to him worldwide and caused another Shadowmorn."

"So being mortal's weakened him?" Harry had a little hope at that idea. The insane demon was stupidly powerful. He had already proved to be next to no match for the ancient creature that had ruined Egypt so long ago.

"Hopefully by enough that we," Atem gestured around at the group, wishing he knew more about the state of his fiercest adversary, "Can finally destroy him."

"Not we." Harry shook his head, not as oblivious to the state of his friends as he knew they would like, "You can't fight."

"But…"

"He's right, Yam…Atem." Joey interrupted the former Pharaoh, "No one can kill it until you go. You fighting it would be pointless. We're going to have to keep him away from you for however long it takes for you two to complete the Ceremonial Duel and send you on."

Atem did not like it. Not one bit. However his friends were right. Even if he was at full strength, he would not be able to kill Zorc. As long as both he and Yugi were on this side of the gates to the afterlife, fighting the demon would be nothing but a waste of time and lives.

Even knowing that, his friends were willing to do it anyway. Willing to put themselves between him and Zorc and give him the time he would need to complete the Ceremonial Duel, knowing that they could die doing so. Yugi hated the idea as much as he did, hated the thought of leaving his friends to fight the demon he should have destroyed five thousand years ago while he ran, hid and played a children's card game but there was no other way. If he and Yugi did not play out the final duel between them, then they could never be rid of Zorc.

"We'll get everyone to Duelist Kingdom safely." The former Pharaoh said finally with a sigh, "And then we'll go. The sooner we get there the sooner we can get started. If we're lucky he'll come here first and that'll give us some time."

"Can Yugi duel with his arm like that?" Hermione asked, worried. "And how are you two even going to fight if you're using the same body?"

Atem frowned slightly. He had the same concern. His and Yugi's duels had always been close, even when his lighter half had been throwing them. However he was supposed to put everything he had into this duel while Yugi was drugged to the gills in order to prevent the agony from his arm from being too much for him. How Yugi was going to overcome both that and him was an interesting question.

Him not having a body was, shockingly, much less worrying. Before Hogwarts, back when he had been nothing more than Yami, the spirit within the Puzzle, he had not had a form of his own. He would have been expected to do the Ceremonial Duel then, so he did not doubt that whatever would have enabled it then, would do so now. His greater concern was that his deck was ruined. The majority of the cards had been destroyed in the tunnel flood that had sent him back to the Puzzle and those that remained were marked. If he used those against Yugi, then it would not be fair.

" _Yami, can I take control?"_ Yugi's quiet question startled the former Pharaoh and he willingly stepped aside, taking his spectral form to stand guard over the young man who he had gotten so badly hurt.

"Don't worry about me." Yugi replied to Hermione's question, smiling softly when she started and peered at him carefully, taking a moment to realise which Yugi he was. "I'll be able to do my duty when the time comes."

"But your arm…"

"Duel Disks go on your left arm. As long as someone helps me put it on, I can duel." Yugi shrugged, feigning a lack of concern, "It'll hurt but I can duel."

"Yugi," Harry's frown was thoughtful, "You can barely move that arm for the pain when you're off the potions and you have to fight to think properly when you're on them, how are you going to duel either way?"

"I'll be fine." Yugi smiled brightly at him, trying to reassure the whole group, "I have a plan, promise."

The others weren't particularly reassured. When it came to making sure he did what needed to be done, Yugi never looked after his own health or safety. Especially when his friends could be put in danger if he did not do it. They were fully aware that if he had to he would probably ruin his arm and leave himself in agony if he thought it was necessary.

"Anyway before we worry about the Duel, we have to get everyone out of here." Yugi redirected them, "We need to work out how to get everyone down to a boat. It's a shame that we can't get a hold of Mako or anyone from Durmstrang, Mako has a boat he'd probably let us use and Durmstrang knew how to get to Hogwarts by boat."

"I'm still trying to work out how that worked." Hermione grumbled, "There is no way a boat should be able to emerge from the lake."

"So you'd be cross if another boat suddenly appeared in the middle of the lake?" Harry asked, staring out at the lake through the window with a stunned expression.

"Not cross. I'd just want answers." Hermione huffed, pausing when the teenager gestured for her to look out of the window, "What?" She came over to Iook, only to stare. "Now that's just not fair."

"What's not?" Yugi asked, getting up and moving over to the window to see there was a boat in the middle of the lake. A rather muggle looking boat with several people on it, including Viktor Krum and one rather recognisable young man who waved up to them enthusiastically.

"Hey, Yugi!" Mako bellowed up, grinning brightly at them, "Can I keep the squid?"

"Guess that solves that problem…"


	17. Take a Deep Breath

" _Yami?"_ Yugi asked, his mental voice little more than a whisper as he watched the last of those leaving the castle with him file out of the huge wooden doors. Men, women and children alike, who had grabbed whatever they could when they had fled to the safety of Hogwarts streamed out of the once 'safest place in Britain' and formed a mostly orderly queue to climb aboard the boat that would take them to safety. _"Am I doing the right thing?"_

' _You shouldn't doubt yourself.'_ The former Pharaoh reassured him, in spirit form as he leaned against the railing next to his lighter self. The pair of them watched as the refugees loaded the ship with what little belongings they had grabbed from their homes when they had fled from Shadowmorn. _'You're doing a good thing in taking them back to the island. If Zorc comes here…'_

Yugi shuddered. He knew what would happen. Zorc would devour the souls of everyone here, but only after he had become bored of them. Voldemort had been prone to tormenting and torturing his victims even before the psychotic demon had taken over his body. Between the pair of them, Yugi was certain that leaving the refugees of Shadowmorn here was equivalent to leaving them to a fate worse them death. _"It's just a long way and they have so little…"_

 _`They agreed to come with us and it's not like we can't get what they need requisitioned from Japan.`_ Harry pointed out over their shared mental bond, looking up at the Pharaoh who was leaning on the railings by the helm. _`You weren't this worried about it earlier.`_

" _I know but earlier I wasn't thinking about the logistics, I was just thinking about getting everyone out of…"_ Yugi trailed off as Professor McGonagall approached him, a concerned look on her features. "Hello Professor, what's on your mind?"

"Please excuse me for speaking out of turn, Mr Mut…Pharaoh." The Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts spoke up, still not quite sure how to handle her ex-student, "But now that almost everyone's on board, I was wondering if you would…if you were going to…"

"Please just say what you're thinking, please Professor. If it helps, think of me as your student, rather than a royal. I'm not used to it and I'm not your Pharaoh anyway, technically I'm only in charge of the Shadow-Touched." The Pharaoh sighed, wondering if anyone outside of the Clan was ever just going to treat him as 'just Yugi' ever again.

"As your professor, I would recommend that you head below deck and rest, Mr Mutou." McGonagall nodded seeming to relax a little, "We have a long way to travel before we reach the edge of the barrier and the more rest you give your arm…"

"Thank you for your concern." Yugi smiled in response, amused slightly by how many people were trying to insist that he got rest. "And once we're moving, I'll head below. Mako has offered me the use of his cabin." He noted the relief on her features at that and shook his head, "I promise, Professor, I'll get what rest I can, but there's a lot to organise."

"Please do." The Deputy Headmistress nodded, relieved to see that the young man was taking her advice on board. "I will assist your Court in keeping things calm while we travel and get everyone settled."

"Thank you." The Pharaoh nodded and smiled, glancing towards the loud bang that occurred when the gangplank was pulled up, signalling that the boat was finally ready to leave. He did hesitate for a moment before turning back to his Transfiguration Teacher though. "Professor, when this is all over…I don't suppose you'd be willing to finish our schooling?" He asked hopefully. "I know Joey and I are over Hogwarts age, but I also know that we need to be properly trained and Hermione would be a bigger threat to my health than Voldemort if I dared say she couldn't complete her education."

That made the old feline animagus smile, despite everything that was going on. "I fear you might be right," She allowed as the spirit of the Puzzle faded back into his home and she escorted the new Pharaoh down from the helm, towards the captain's cabin, "Miss Granger's addiction to her studies would make her a formidable foe." She was rewarded with a smile and a soft chuckle at that. Since it was the first she had seen or heard from the young man since his friend had been murdered at the end of the school year, she took it as the victory it was. "However you may rest assured that I will help you complete your studies, be it through personal tutoring or by finding you the appropriate teachers."

"Thank you." Yugi's smile widened as he watched a shield of magic surround the vessel and overheard Vicktor Krum telling Hermione that it was a variation of the 'Bubble Head Charm' that would protect the ship and provide air for everyone on board as they travelled through the underwater tunnels that led out to the ocean. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a couple of things to sort out, then I'm going to have a nap."

The Deputy Headmistress nodded and started raising the school's defences to cover their tracks as Yugi headed over to check on Mako. It had been years since he had last seen the ocean Duelist and the Pharaoh owed him big time for coming to their rescue. He tried to ignore the way that the crowd parted to allow him to access to the huge, blue haired young captain.

"Mako, I…"

"Yugi, it's good to see you." The Pharaoh did not get to start his thank you. Instead Mako crossed the gap between them and hugged him. The pained cry from the young man as his badly damaged arm was pressed between them made the ocean duelist let go rapidly and backed up. "S…sorry."

Yugi's eyes turned red momentarily as Atem briefly took control to allow Yugi the chance to centre himself after the spike of agony. Mako did not say a word, just watched and waited until the Pharaoh had recovered to say, "Sorry again, my friend."

"It's okay." Yugi reassured him, though he could feel Atem's anger at Mako's carelessness buzzing through his mind and along his nerves in a way that it had not since his alter ego had gotten his own body. "I just wanted to thank you for this."

"When your Duel Monster friends sent me the news you needed help, I just had to respond." Mako waved it off with a huge grin, "After you saved the world, this was the least I could do."

Yugi winced slightly, the knowledge that the world was not yet as safe as most people thought plaguing his mind. "Sorry for dropping this much crazy on you."

"This is actually pretty tame compared to fighting off the end of the world." Mako shrugged, still smiling as the magic started pulling the air bubble below the waves, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to steer this vessel. Feel free to use my cabin for the journey."

"Thank you," Yugi said, then smiled and headed for the captain's cabin. If he was being honest with himself, he needed the rest; being in pain and fighting through the mind-numbing effects of the painkillers, was difficult and exhausting. Only the support of his darker half kept him from stumbling as he pulled the door shut behind him.

Laying down did not help. Sirius had told him what Zorc said to Dumbledore during the headmaster's final moments and the terrifying promise the demon had made. Worse still was the knowledge that no matter how hard he fought against it, he would have to leave his friends to fight the demon without him. Zorc was immortal while both halves of the Pharaoh's soul rested in the world of the living. Until Yugi faced him in battle, Atem could not depart, and so Zorc could never be vanquished.

Yugi was sure that defeating Atem was impossible. It was not a matter of strategy; he had a plan to do it, but he had thrown every match to avoid trouble. The problem was that with his right arm badly broken, he would be unable to muster his powers of concentration, and the potions meant to alleviate the pain also left his wits duller than an old sword. The day would come, there was no stopping that, but he wanted to be at the top of his game when it did. Anything less would be an insult and prevent his victory. Just to top it all off, Zorc knew where the ceremonial duel was to take place which meant they would have to get there fast or he would beat them there and kill them all.

He had lied to his friends about having a plan. His thoughts were too muddy for anything so complex, but at least letting them think everything was in hand would keep them from panicking, wasting time they simply did not have. He would have to improvise.

 _'Yugi, you need to sleep.'_ Atem, his darker self and the other half of his soul, worried at him as he took spirit form and sat on the edge of the bed. Yugi mentally winced, well aware that even now, with this thoughts obscured by the miasma caused by the potions' side effects, Yami would be able to sense his distress. _'We have a long trip ahead and I know you're more tired than you want to admit.'_

It was true, but Yugi was not sure he even would be able to sleep. He was no fool. He knew what sending Atem beyond the gates to the afterlife would mean. His brother would leave, for good, and he would be down half a soul. That horrid wrenching gap that hurt so badly when they were torn apart from each other would become a permanent feature in his life. Yugi was dreading it, but there was no other choice. Either he lived on with half a soul, or the world ended at Zorc's hands.

' _It'll be okay Yugi.'_ Atem sighed, running his hand through his lighter self's hair, smiling softly when the boy subconsciously relaxed into his touch. There was not much he could do to interact with anyone anymore, but at least he could still do this for his light. _'I have every faith in you. Just rest now and things will look so much better once you've slept.'_

" _I'm okay."_ Yugi's mental voice was a soft, exhausted whisper as he felt Yami's spectral hand on his forehead, as if checking his temperature, _"Not sick just…"_

' _I know and I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.'_ The former Pharaoh flinched when Yugi trailed off without mentioning the pain, able to feel the underlying edge of it for himself. Though relieved that his light did not have an injury induced fever, it was clear the young man was not at all himself and Atem knew it was his fault. If he had just been a little more careful during the Shadow Game against the Death Eaters…

Still it was too late to do anything about the past, now he had to focus on the future. Not his own though, he had to tend to Yugi's future. His time was nearly done, but he felt that it was his duty, possibly his penultimate one, to ensure that his light's story carried on after his ended. If that meant helping his light get some well-deserved rest that was the least he could do.

" _Yami? I'm going to miss you."_ Yugi's mental mumble was barely audible as he slipped into a much needed nap, lulled there by his predecessor's touch and the calm, confident aura the former Pharaoh was projecting.

' _And I you.'_ Atem's reply went unheard.

* * *

"Is it ready?" Tristan asked Dinah, the Leader of the DuelDMU group that had bailed them out during the Domino attack, as he headed across the room to the floo connection to Japan, "They'll be here shortly."

"Miss Wheeler was just putting on the finishing touches when I got the message that you wanted to talk to me." She nodded in response, pursing her lips slightly. "What did you want me for? I was kind of busy helping get the rooms set up for the new refugees."

"I'm going to collect someone ahead of Yugi's arrival." Tristan informed her with a slight scowl, unhappy with the plan and doubly unhappy with bringing Marik to the island when Yugi was coming back so badly injured. "I was hoping you'd come with me."

"That worried about getting attacked?" Dinah paused and watched as Tristan found the matches above the fireplace he needed, along with the jar of floo powder. "Or is it that you trust this person that little?" The fact Tristan's scowl deepened told Dinah which one it was. "If you don't like them, why are you bringing them here? Who is it anyway?"

"You remember Battle City? The first one?" Tristan asked her, "The other finalist?"

"Marik Ishtar? The Egyptian guy who went crazy during the quarter finals and started attacking competitors?" Dinah grimaced, "You're bringing him here? Why?"

"He and his family are the only ones who know where Yugi has to go to get rid of the guy who attacked Domino and CardCon for good." The Japanese man grimaced as he lit the fire the old fashioned way and tried not to envy his friends who could do so with a flick of their wands. "So we need him."

"Okay but can't you pick him up on the way to wherever the Pharaoh needs to go?" The Leader of DuelDMU asked, loath to risk the safety of her little group by bringing a lunatic onto the island.

"I would rather he wasn't walking around Domino where he could get attacked or grabbed by Voldemort and Yugi's going to want to leave from here, rather than bounce through Japan." He did not want to mention that he was not sure Yugi would be able to deal with a multiple stop journey if he was in as bad a condition as Joey had told him.

"Fair enough, but you are going to keep an eye on him, right?" Dinah huffed, not amused but willing to play along. It made sense after all, even if she did not like it.

"Don't worry about that. He won't be going anywhere alone." Tristan promised before throwing the floor powder into the fireplace, "Japanese Magical Embassy." When the fire flared up green he turned to look at her, "Are you coming or not?"

"Yeah, I'm with you." Dinah nodded, grabbing up a handful of the glittering green powder. She watched Tristan head through the fireplace and disappear, then copied his actions. They were greeted on the other side by a pair of Shiragiku, who checked they were who they said they were before accompanying them to the still untouched block three of the business district.

Dinah had a feeling that Tristan had not just asked her along for support against anyone who could have attacked him as the young man slowed down. He looked like the approach physically hurt him as he headed towards the burned out ruins of what used to be the Kame Game Shop. The young man shook with anger and sadness as he climbed over the rubble to the spot where they had dug out the remains of Yugi's family after the explosion. The Leader of the DMU duelling club gestured for the Japanese Aurors to stay back and then approached him slowly.

"Tristan?" She asked quietly of the High Court member, worried for the young man as he glared at the mess surrounding him. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." The snap in his tone told her that he really was not fine. "Let's just get Marik and get the hell out of here."

"If you need to talk…"

"I don't need to talk." Tristan snarled at her, causing her to back up rapidly. "There's nothing to talk about. What's done is done. We can't fix it. We just have to do the best we can with the shit we've got left."

Dinah did not really know what to say to that. There was not much she could say. Luckily she did not have to. A rather fake cough from behind them signalled that someone had arrived and the pair turned around to find a tall, Egyptain male with long, ash blonde hair had arrived. "Where's Yugi?" The man demanded, clearly confused, "Wheeler said…"

"Yugi's on his way, we've come to pick you up." Tristan interrupted him, clearly not in the mood to deal with Marik's attitude, "Unless you want to wander around a bit longer."

"No, no, I've had enough of this wasteland." Marik's offhand, uncaring comment caused Tristan to bristle.

"This 'wasteland' was our home, Marik and you'd do well to remember that." He growled at the Egyptian, who just shrugged.

"Sorry, sorry." Marik did not look sorry. "Are we going?"

"Yeah, come on." Tristan started leading him back to the Shiragiku and tried to ignore the urge to kick him. Hard. "How much did Joey tell you over the phone?"

"Zorc's still alive and Yugi is heading to Egypt. Why? What else do I need to know?" Marik asked, frowning. "He IS capable of doing the Ceremonial Duel, isn't he?"

"I…" Tristan hesitated. If Yugi was in as bad a way as Joey seemed to think, and he had to be in a pretty bad state for Joey to notice considering that Yugi was the King of appearing fine when he really wasn't, he did not know if Yugi would be able to fight. "I have a lot to tell you when we get back to the island."

"Start now." Marik demanded, a worried frown settling on his features, "I may have to adjust the plans."

* * *

Zorc was not impressed.

He was not too worried about hunting down the Pharaoh for the time being. His Shadow Wall would prevent the Pharaoh taking magical methods of transport out of the country and he had shades watching every airport and train station that led out of the country. There was no way for the badly injured Pharaoh to escape. Not to mention that his friends would not even allow him to try until he had recovered.

However, when he eventually wanted to hunt down and slowly torture the Pharaoh and his friends into insanity, he would require disposable minions to wear down the Pharaoh's guardians and that meant recalling the useless wastes of space that were bound to his current host. That only about half had answered his initial call had left him rather irritated and ready to start removing souls.

The fear radiating off of those who had arrived when he had first yanked on the bonds of magic that connected the life-sworn Death Eaters to the worthless soul that still technically inhabited the body, even if Zorc had trapped it in a cage far at the back of their shared mind, was delicious and fuelled him quite nicely. That it increased when he flexed his power and started dragging the traitors who thought they could avoid him if they did not answer the call through the Shadows to kneel before him was a welcome boost.

Several had just been frightened of him, something he could appreciate, and after swearing binding oaths to him, he could let them rejoin the ranks. Others, however…

"My Lord, please…"

"Crucio!" Zorc watched with amusement as Dumbledore's spy writhed on the floor, screaming in agony. His host might have tolerated the double agent in his ranks, but he had no desire to do so. Someone had informed the Order of the Phoenix about his trap in the Ministry of Magic. The spy claimed that it had been Dumbledore's pet dogs that had ruined everything but the Order had arrived too quickly for that to be the truth. Even if he was being honest, he did not trust the man who had betrayed his host to Dumbledore over some woman who had picked her lover long before the Potions Master had stabbed him in the back.

The Death Eaters watching shifted nervously as he kept the spy under for what felt like forever to the watchers. Zorc fed on the emotions flowing off of each of them and the agony emitted by his victim. It was delicious and he allowed himself to imagine just how much tastier the despair and hatred of the Pharaoh would taste as Zorc tortured the young man's friends in exactly the same way. The best bit was that that would just be the start of his meal when he won. The pain and grief he was planning to cause would give him enough strength to last the entire five thousand years before the Pharaoh reincarnated and Zorc could do it all over again, he was sure of it.

He was jolted out of his musing when the spy's voice cracked and gave out. The man's mind followed soon after. The demon possessed Dark Lord dropped the spell the moment it did. He had no interest in tormenting someone who could no longer feel it and the limp, comatose form of the Potion's Master stared blankly at the ceiling.

"Remove the rubbish." Zorc demanded, a little annoyed. He had planned to stretch out Snape's torture and now he found himself desiring a new toy. He gestured at Lucius Malfoy with a frown and pointed to the body.

"M…My lord?"

"Now Malfoy. Don't think I've forgotten how your plan failed me." The demon snorted, still angry at the man, "You swore you picked the right men and that they would only fall after crippling the Pharaoh."

"He was wounded, badly so. He couldn't fight you my lord." Lucius went pale and backed up at the fact the scowl deepened.

"He was still walking." Zorc snapped, "And he escaped, didn't he?"

"Y…yes my Lord but…"

"No buts. The only reason I allow you to live is that he was so badly wounded that he won't be attempting to flee the UK any time soon. In fact there's only one place the Order of the Phoenix would have taken him. Now get rid of the trash, we have a school to break into."

* * *

Atem could feel it when they passed through the shadow barrier surrounding the country and the limits on their magic lifted. He was certain Yugi could too as the young man grumbled in his sleep and Yami felt him starting to stir. Before the former Pharaoh could fully awaken his inheritor, however, there was a firm knock on the door and then Joey slipped into the room.

He nodded to Atem then moved quietly over to Yugi's bedside and gently shook his best friend's left shoulder. "Yuge?"

"Hmm?" Yugi asked, eyes opening slowly. Atem frowned slightly as his light struggled to pull his mind out of the sleep induced haze, "What's ahh!" The new Pharaoh cried out as he tried to sit up, only to accidently put weight on his right arm and cause agony to spike up the broken limb.

"Yuge!" Joey helped his best friend sit up and supported him as he curled up, clutching the arm as best he could.

"I-I'm f-fine." Yugi stammered, well awake now, leaning into Joey and shaking heavily with the pain.

"No, you're not." Atem could hear the concern in their friend's voice, "Have the pain meds worn off?"

"A-A little." The Pharaoh tried to centre himself. It helped that he could feel the support of his darker self, allowing him something to mentally lean on while Joey supported him in the real world. "W-was fine until I did that."

"We've just passed through the barrier so we'll be back at Duellist Kingdom soon." It was clear their friend was worried, "Serenity and her teacher might know something Madam Pomfrey didn't to fix you right up."

"I'm okay." Yugi lied outright as he pulled away from his friend and got up. "I don't need to see the…"

"Yugi." Joey's warning tone made the Pharaoh freeze. "You're not okay and you can't keep this up if you're in that much pain."

"I have to Joey." Yugi's shoulders sank, realising that his friend wasn't falling for his attempts to hide the problems. "We don't have time for me to get looked at properly, not when…"

"Yugi." Joey's sharp tone brought Yugi up short, "Enough. Sit down and listen to me." Yami was amused as his light looked at his friend, shocked, "Now, Yuge." When the Pharaoh sat on the bed and looked at him, Joey continued, "What the hell are you thinking?"

"Zorc will be heading for Egypt the moment he realises we're not in England anymore. If I waste time getting my arm healed properly, he will beat us there and we…"

"You don't think we can win if that happens." Joey realised, going pale.

The Pharaoh just shook his head.

"Shit. Shit!" Joey kicked the bedside table hard enough to break the side of it. "Shit!"

Yugi could not bring himself to disagree with Joey's anger. It was justified. They were backed into a corner, all their options were bad and if he was honest, they were screwed no matter what they did.

"Can you beat Yami as you are right now?" Joey demanded, asking the one question the young Pharaoh did not want asked. "If we go the moment we get to the island, can you beat Yami in the Ceremonial Duel?"

Luckily for Yugi he did not have to answer. There was a knock on the door and Mako poked his head in, "The refugees are getting antsy and badgering your friend Harry, they want to know when we're leaving."

"Soon." Yugi promised, standing up and heading for the door. _'Harry? Everything okay?'_ He asked down the link, only to get a frustrated grumble back.

 _`I know you're in pain but can you come out here and help me organise these…`_ Harry paused and Yugi could imagine him taking a deep breath, _`I swear if we don't try and sort out who's taking who, they'll leave half the group behind by accident.`_

' _I'm on my way.'_ Yugi chuckled, having noticed the complete inability of English wizards to get organised without a lot of directions.

"Yuge?" Joey asked, catching up as the Pharaoh headed up the corridor and Atem re-entered the Puzzle, "Everything okay?"

"It will be shortly." The Pharaoh emerged onto the deck to find chaos in play with Harry having trouble being heard over the hubbub. "Excuse me!" When he went unnoticed he sighed and bellowed, "Everyone! Quiet!" The silence that fell after that was swift and encompassed everyone. Yugi nodded to Harry then continued, "Thank you. Now, we'll do this in groups. Everyone who can summon will take two people with them who can't. As long as you keep a hold on the Duel Monster you're travelling with, you'll be perfectly safe. Hermione will go with the first group to introduce them to the others on the island and the rest of my Court and myself will be in the last group to provide cover and take the last few."

No one questioned him and he could not help but wonder how such a sheep-like society actually managed to function on a daily basis or how they would have reacted if Voldemort had managed to take over the UK instead of being possessed by a demon. Still it made it easier to gather everyone into the groups and get them moving. It did not, unfortunately make it a fast process and by the time it was his turn the pain relieving potions had worn off. He tried his best to supress it but even with Yami's support it was a very pale and trembling Pharaoh that summoned up the Dark Magician, Mahad, and followed the refugees through to Duellist Kingdom.

Serenity and her teacher were waiting for them when they arrived but it was Marik who got to Yugi's side first, grimacing when he got a good look at the Pharaoh's condition. "Tristan was right, you need to see a doctor."

"No time, if you're here we'll head for Egypt." Yugi shook his head.

"They're not ready for you, I checked before Tristan picked me up." Marik disagreed, well aware they were being watched by the refugees who had not been rushed off by the Duel DMU group. "It's going to be an hour or so at least."

"Fine." Yugi grimaced before raising his voice, "Domino Clan!" He called, catching the attention of every Clan member in the area, "Meeting in the main dining hall. Now."

The Clan broke off what they were doing immediately, knowing Yugi would not call a meeting right now unless it was vitally important. The message passed through the castle and as they headed up to the dining hall and the other members joined them, meaning that they were all in the hall by the time Yugi got there.

Harry and Joey had followed the Pharaoh, worried he was going to pass out from the pain but he was more stable than they gave him credit for. He made it there fine and the moment the dining room doors closed behind the last person, he turned to the group with a determined look on his features. "Right, we need to discuss the plan."

"What _is_ the plan?" Tristan demanded, "Because you haven't shared it before now."

"Marik," Yugi gestured to the young man in question who had slipped in behind Mai, "Says the Tomb Keepers aren't ready for us yet. That means we will be arriving ahead of time and may need to hold down the fort until the duel can start, it all depends on whether Zorc knows we've left the country yet."

"Okay, so what's the **plan**?" Mai emphasised, "Because you have to have one, you always do."

"I…"

"He doesn't have one." Kaiba's realisation when Yugi hesitated, startled the others. They turned to the Pharaoh to deny it, only to find the young man in question staring at the floor.

"Yugi?" Hermione asked, confused, "You said in Hogwarts that you'd thought of something."

"I-I lied." Yugi admitted, still staring at the floor. "I don't have a plan. I haven't managed to think of anything." The silence that fell at that news was heavy and it was Yugi who broke it, still staring at the ground. "We know Yami has to go and I have to beat him. We also know that Zorc can't die until we complete the Ceremonial Duel. What I don't know is how to keep Zorc from arriving during the duel and…"

"Killing everyone before you can finish the duel." Marik put in when Yugi trailed off. The Pharaoh's nod did not reassure his friends. "That's easy, I'll go and cause a diversion."

"What?" Yugi's head snapped up and Marik suddenly found himself the centre of attention of everyone in the room.

"Bakura was never at the Ceremonial battle site, so Zorc won't know where it is. He will follow the power of the Egyptian God monsters to try and find you. There's only three people in the world those things will listen to and I'm one of them. I can cause a diversion and give you time to get to the site and start the match."

"Marik, no, you'll be throwing your life away." Yugi shook his head violently, "I can't let you…"

"Then tell me you have a better plan. Tell me you know some way of keeping the demon far from Egypt until after the duel, because I don't think you can. With that injury and your head the way that it is you're going to need all the time you can get to finish this duel."

"How did you…?" Yugi stared at him, confused as to how Marik knew he had been having trouble thinking thanks to all the pain and medication.

"We're not idiots Yuge." Joey spoke up, "We've hung around you so long that we know when something's up and I told Tristan you weren't acting right."

"And I told Marik when he asked for an update." Tristan agreed, nodding.

"I can keep Zorc diverted for a while, I have the men and resources to do so." Marik informed Yugi, looking stubborn, "That should give you the time you need to duel."

"But…"

"Unless you go and get that arm fixed this is the only plan." Marik pointed out. "Zorc can't track you unless you use the God monsters, so you're safe here and you have time to get that arm looked at properly. If you get it healed so you can duel properly, I won't have to divert the demon because your friends will be able to handle him."

"You're blackmailing me into getting treatment?" Yugi looked confused and a little annoyed, "I thought we wanted to get rid of Zorc as fast as possible."

"You lose…" Marik paused and changed what he was going to say, "You lose, we all lose. You need to be able to actually fight this damn duel properly so either I give you the time to do so, or you spend a few hours getting that arm fixed right and I can back your friends up at the duel site."

"You're certain Zorc can't track Yuge if he's not using the God cards?" Joey asked Marik, wanting confirmation.

"I'm about eighty-seven percent certain of it." Marik nodded. "And even if he can because Yugi's the Pharaoh, he should only be able to locate him if he's awake and aware and using an obscene amount of magic."

"Like when I went after Neos when he killed Yami." Yugi realised. "Zorc struck Domino right after I let loose."

"Exactly, so if you don't use any magic, Zorc shouldn't be able to find you and you can take the risk on seeing the healers." Harry grinned.

"All right." Yugi sighed, smiling slightly at this good news. "I'll go and see the healer and then once my arm is right, we'll go to the duel site and get this over with." The Clan watched him go, with Tristan accompanying him to show him to the new infirmary room. Once the door had closed behind the Pharaoh, Kaiba turned to Marik.

"So how much of that was crap?" Kaiba asked the Egyptian, amused.

"I was completely honest about the fact Zorc shouldn't be able to track Yugi." Marik shrugged, just glad he had not yet been forced to reveal the awful news about the upcoming duel and why it was so important that Yugi was fully rested for it.

"Okay, so what were you lying about?" Harry asked, noticing the evasive phrasing.

"Zorc knows exactly where the battle site is." Marik admitted. "And I'm still going to have to cause a diversion."

"Then let's plan this out." Joey decided, smacking his fist against his palm, "And see exactly how much time we can give Yugi to heal."

"Right."

* * *

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had some of the best defences in the wizarding world, built up over a thousand years until they were almost impenetrable.

They lasted about three minutes against the might of Zorc's Shadows.

The building itself was of no interest to the demon, it's old and ancient magicks were little more than a blip on the map to him. Old magicks outweighed new ones easily. The power that had been installed in the old castle over the last millennia since the school had been founded had given it a level of sentience, that was true, but it was no threat him and the power was too different and too new to be of any use to him.

He did not need to go too far into the school building to find life. There were not as many people around as he had expected there to be but the few who were there were terrified of him. It was not hard to get the fact the Pharaoh had fled the castle and taken most of the inhabitants with him on a boat that had travelled underneath the lake. That news was met with fury and a surge of magic that flattened the nearby area and flooded the downstairs and dungeons.

The Pharaoh was gone. Disappeared by his friends no doubt, while Zorc had been wasting his time with the worthless idiots his host had called his followers. The demon did not have to guess where they would be taking the king. It was easy to assume, considering he had told them exactly what they needed to do to stop him in a fit of overconfidence, that they would be heading for the Ceremonial Duel site.

He scowled as he reached out to the Shadows he had fed into the barrier surrounding the English Isles and drew them back in, cursing the Headmaster and his Order of the Phoenix. If they had not gotten in the way, he could have killed the reincarnated King already and had the world cowering at his feet. He cursed the Light Pharaoh too. Yes, he had given him a back door to avoid ultimate defeat, but that escape route had led to this blasted mortal body and all the limitations that came with it. In his true form he had been able to call the Shadows too him and unleash them across the globe. He had almost won too, using the strength that the souls his shades had ripped from victims across the globe had given him.

Now that power was caged in a useless mortal shell, one that was barely human and possessed almost no soul. A body that was more construct than true vessel and it was costing him. In a true human body, he would have been much more powerful, in a real Shadow-Touched human he could have called down Shadowmorn and finished what he had started almost a month ago.

If he had had a choice, he would have taken the Pharaoh's new vessel but he could not possess the boy now he had regained his full powers. He had tried to steal the empty body before the child had returned from the Memory Game but the divine energies within the young man and Zorc's weakened condition had prevented it. Instead the damage done by Horakhty within the Memory RPG had forced him to take control of the weakest of those souls touched by the dark magic that he had been born of. It carried plenty of magical potential within it, but Shadow magic drew from life energy and within this twisted, fragile shell his control over the Shadows was just as strong as ever, but he could not maintain it for anywhere near as long, yet alone make it explode out as he had during that game and devour the world.

Still, that did not mean that with the Pharaoh would defeat him. If his friends had moved him already, then there was no way for him to have started recovering from the injury his minions had inflicted. That meant that when Zorc found him, he would be weak, possibly helpless, and the only thing that would stand between Yugi and his total defeat would be his worthless group of friends.

He just needed to find the Pharaoh before he completed the Ceremonial Duel.

He drew up his magic, ready to travel through the darkness, only to feel a huge swell of Shadow magic and a spike of the divine energy that could only be wielded by a select few modern Duellists. Zorc smirked and changed his mind regarding his travelling direction. The Pharaoh was the only one who held the God monsters now, it had to be him.

With an incredible wave of shadow magic, Zorc and all his Death Eaters disappeared from the school grounds.

* * *

"So where's this door?" Joey asked as he, Harry and Tristan headed up to the infirmary, going to collect Yugi from the care of the healers in order to take him to the duel site.

"I can't tell you." Tristan admitted with a small smug grin.

"What do you mean you can't tell me?" The blonde demanded, "I kind of need to know."

"I literally can't tell you. We put that hiding charm on the Pharaoh's infirmary, you know, the one that means you can't see or find a place unless you've been told where it is by the secret keeper?" His friend asked, "It was Serenity's idea."

"The fidelius." Joey nodded. It was sound logic and a layer of protection for when his friend was down and out that he would not have thought of, still... "Okay, so who's the secret keeper? Because if it's not someone we can trust we'll have the same issue Harry's parents did. No offence Harry."

"Kisara volunteered." Tristan replied as Harry shrugged, still furious with Pettigrew for betraying his parents but understanding the logic of Joey's comment. "And we figured a secret keeper who wasn't in this world most of the time was better than using one of us, who it could be tortured out of."

Harry stopped in his tracks, "Okay, so can someone summon her? Because we can't actually go into Yugi's room if we're not told the…" He trailed off when the most recognisable roar in the entire game of Duel Monsters sounded out of the window, "Right, Kaiba's well ahead of us."

' _Seto is asking me to share the Pharaoh's location with you.'_ The Leader of the Light monsters spoke directly into their minds, _'The Pharaoh's Infirmary is on the third floor, between the portraits of the white castle and the field of poppies.'_

The door appeared to both of them in the same instant, seeming to emerge from the plaster out of nowhere. _`Thanks Kisara._ `

The dragon did not reply but Harry was not concerned as he headed into the room. Inside the room was clean and crisp, with white walls and bedding. Most of the important equipment was partly hidden behind screens but from what Harry could see, he suspected that favours had been called in to ensure that there was everything in here that a normal hospital wing or infirmary would have. Not that that mattered right now.

Healer Akata looked irritated when she looked up from her diagnosis spell results to find them in the room. "I've only just got him settled and fixed the torn muscles, if you have a problem, you're going to have to deal with it yourself."

Joey grimaced as Harry approached the bed. Yugi looked healthier already. With a chance to stop and receive proper medical treatment he looked more like himself and less like the ghastly ghost he had before he had come up here. "How long will he be out?" Harry asked, loath to wake his friend if he could help it.

"Given his build and the cocktail and dosage of the potions in his system right now, it's going to be at least twelve hours before he wakes on his own. There's a possibility after about five that you'll be able to wake him up, but I'd rather you didn't. Until his bones are done regrowing he's going to be in a lot of pain if he comes round and that won't be for about eight hours. I had to vanish the whole lot to ensure I got all the shards out." Healer Akata told them with a frown.

"Is it safe to transport him?" Joey asked with a frown, wondering if he could get Yugi to Egypt so it was less of a distance to travel when he woke up.

"Not unless it's to somewhere he can be led down and you're taking him without waking him." Akata shook her head, her frown deepening.

"He'll be heading down the Nile on a boat, I can carry him onboard." Joey assured the Healer, "Marik says it's part of the ceremony for the Pharaoh to travel down the Nile to his final resting place, he never said he had to be awake for it. In fact, it's probably better if he isn't."

Serenity and her teacher looked at each other. "I'm not sure I like the idea of him travelling with that arm the way it is, but how much time do we have?" The lead healer asked.

"I don't know." Harry admitted slowly, "It depends on how long the school holds up and how long Marik manages to dodge Zorc…"

"So there's no choice." Healer Akata grimaced. "But…" She looked nervous.

"I'll go." Serenity spoke up, looking determined.

"Serenity?" Joey asked, confused.

"Yugi will need a healer with him to keep an eye on his arm and ensure it's fully healed." Serenity informed her brother, "And after everything Yugi's done and given up for us, I can do something as simple as watching over him now."

"You're braver than I am." Her mentor admitted, "I don't want to go anywhere near that mess but I'll send everything you need with you."

"Thank you." Serenity bowed to her teacher.

"Alright," Harry spoke up, taking the lead and still trying not to think about the fact that once Zorc arrived, he'd be the one who'd have to kill him. "Let's get him moving."


	18. Before the Plunge

Ishizu Ishtar nervously waited on the banks of the Nile. The boat was ready, the duel site was ready, they just needed the Pharaoh to arrive and things could get moving. Her brother had contacted her the moment he had been called to the shop for pick up, but she had not heard anything since. No one had contacted her to let her know exactly when they would be arriving or what state they would be arriving in despite the fact Marik's call had come in hours ago.

She felt guilty that the Pharaoh's final journey had had to be rushed. If she had just told the ruler the truth when he had defeated Zorc in the Memory World, things would not be so dire now. She had just wanted to allow her Pharaoh to have a normal life for a little longer. She had thought that, with the Thief King dead, the demon would be neutered. It would not be able to act in the mortal world and it would be safe for her Pharaoh, both halves of them, to have the lives they deserved.

She had been wrong. So very wrong and because she had made that mistake, the demon had claimed the body of a psychotic lunatic and gone on a rampage that had killed the living Pharaoh's family and claimed the lives of tens of thousands more.

There was only one way to stop it now, they would have to complete the Ceremonial Duel. Yugi Mutou, the first Pharaoh of the Modern Age of Shadows would have to duel Atem, the last Pharaoh of the Ancient Age in a fight that would end in death. The two halves of the Nameless Pharaoh's soul would face off against each other in front of the Gates of the Afterlife and the defeated half would have to die in order to end the immortality of Zorc and allow them to destroy the demon, once and for all.

She had a horrible feeling Atem would refuse to duel if she told him the full truth of the Duel. However she could not keep it from either half of the Nameless Pharaoh. They had to enter the duel with full knowledge of the consequences and with the ability to give everything they had. Holding back, even slightly, or being unaware of the fallout would cause the Gates to not open and the departing soul would not be able to leave. If that happened, then everyone who had put themselves between Zorc and the Ceremonial Duel would have done so for nothing.

Still they had time. It was a nine hour journey down the Nile and then another hour by car from where they were arriving. Her hope was that it was plenty of time for her to tell the Pharaoh everything they needed to know, let them come to terms with it and build decks before they arrived in Kul Elna, where they would return the Millennium Items to the stone tablet where they were formed and begin the hardest duel of their lives.

That hope was blown out of the water when Tristan and Tea arrived, along with an auburn-haired girl that Ishizu recognised as Serenity Wheeler, via the Shadows with the assistance of their Duel Monsters. Not far behind them was Joey and Ishizu's eyes went wide as she realised who he was carrying.

"Wh-what happened?" Ishizu asked, going pale as she beheld the unconscious Pharaoh in the arms of his best friend. "Why is he…?"

"Marik didn't tell you?" Joey grimaced as he very carefully adjusted his grip on his friend, making sure that he would not drop Yugi before he could put him down. "Zorc ambushed us and Yuge got really hurt protecting us from the minions."

"He'll be okay once he wakes up but that won't be for a few hours yet." Serenity stepped in, carrying a big bag with the caduceus, the symbol of a Doctor or Healer, on. "Is there anywhere we can let him rest?"

"Y…yes, certainly." Ishizu hurried them onto the ship, gesturing to the men with her to cast off the moment that they were all on board, and down into the lower levels of the large yacht. It had been an expensive thing to purchase, but they had been happy to do so in order to provide the Pharaoh with some comforts on his final journey. It did not hurt that Marik and Odeon were often out on it, enjoying the freedom that had come with the Pharaoh's victory over Marik's insane other self. "Is there anything special he'll need on waking?"

"No, I've got what he needs in here." Serenity shook her head as she patted her bag, "Thank you for your concern though." Ishizu's nod in reply was short and sharp as she guided them to one of the master bedrooms, her mind racing as Joey laid Yugi on the bed and Serenity got him settled.

"Where are my brothers?" She could not help but ask as Tristan dropped a dufflesack on the side that clanked like it contained the Millennium Items, all bar the Puzzle, whose chain was in its tradition position around Yugi's neck. "Where are Marik and Odeon?" When the others froze, concern crossing their features, Ishizu knew something was very wrong. "What happened?"

"I'm not sure where Odeon is." Joey admitted, "But there's a lot to tell you, Ishizu." He sighed as she backed away from the bed and watched his friend carefully. "Can we talk? Upstairs?"

"Certainly…" She had a horrible feeling that he wanted her away from Yugi because he expected her to start shouting. "I have a few things I need to tell you myself. I was hoping to talk to the Pharaoh but…" She gestured to the bed, "You might be able to assist me instead."

"I can try."

* * *

"Stop running. It won't help you."

Marik did not listen, narrowly avoiding hex by darting down an alley. The spell impacted with the brick work at head height and blew a hole in the wall. He was not going to stop, no matter how much he was told to. Just because he was trying to keep Zorc away from the Ceremonial Duel site, that did not mean that he had to take him on face to face.

He had to get out of sight however, before he could summon another monster and get them to help him jump to the next city. The disguise spell that Granger had put on him before he had left Duellist Kingdom meant that he looked like Yugi. Summoning his own monsters, rather than the ones from Yugi's deck would ruin that disguise and the demon would stop chasing him and head for Kul Elna early.

A fire spell roared down the alleyway, catching the back of his jacket, lighting it on fire and making him cry out. He was about to summon, disguise be damned, so he could get enough space between him and demon to stop, drop and roll safely, when a familiar Duel Monster appeared beside him and yanked him through the Shadows to some city Marik did not recognise. Not that he cared as the Shadows closed up behind him, cutting the demon off from following for now.

"Shit!" Marik yelped as he ripped off and stamped on his jacket, trying to put it out. "That was too close!"

"Are you alright, Marik?" Marik relaxed as he recognised the voice of the speaker. Odeon, his loyal friend, brother and companion looked worried as he watched him stamp out the flames.

"Yeah, thanks." The former villain huffed as he examined the ruined jacket, "But what're you doing here?"

"My deck made me aware of what you were doing." Odeon snorted, dusting himself off. "I thought I would assist."

"You realise that you could get killed?" Marik raised an eyebrow at him.

Odeon could not help but feel that the expression looked rather out of place on the features of the ruler his brother was pretending to be, "That didn't stop me following you before. Now, shall we go?"

* * *

"Is this...?" Hermione asked, astounded as she beheld the shine they had been led down into, with it's intricate carvings, huge stone door and the sarcophagus like tablet on the ground with holes for the Millennium Items.

"The Ceremonial Duel site, yes, Lady Granger." One of the tribesmen that met them in the ruined city above nodded, "The Tomb Keeper tribe have guarded it for millennia, despite the Ishtar rebellion." His tone spoke of the disgust that he had for Marik's insurgence against the Pharaoh back during Battle City.

"It's been five years and Yugi's forgiven him..." Hermione started as Harry approached the tablet. This close it was impossible to not feel the power the thing kept stored. The hum of Shadow magic drowned out the tribesman's response as he knelt down and examined it. Ever since Atem had gotten his memories back, the link had given Harry an ability to read and speak Egyptian as natively as he now spoke Japanese and he grimaced as he read the inscriptions on the main body of the tablet that spoke of the truth of the Millennium Items. The same truth that had caused Bakura's rage and had disturbed Yugi badly enough that he had not been able to keep it from Harry.

The young wizard felt a little sick as he thought about the massacre of Kul Elna. He knew his friends had nothing to do with it. Atem had only been a few months old when his uncle had wiped out the city of thieves and used their blood and souls to give insane magical power to the golden treasures that the Pharaoh and his men had used to protect Egypt. That did not mean he felt comfortable with it. He knew Yugi felt the same way, though the new Pharaoh tried to push it away for Atem's sake.

"Lord Potter?" Harry startled and looked up at the tribesman who had been rather dismissive of the small group of fighters Harry had brought with him, even trying to drive them off until Harry and Hermione had introduced themselves. Once he had realised that they were members of Yugi's court and were here to protect the Pharaohs during Atem's last act, Karim had been much more willing to listen to them and had even taken upon himself to explain what would happen once the Pharaoh and his predecessor arrived. "We should go back up, before the Pharaoh and his vessel arrive and the fighting starts."

Harry could not help his irritation at the implication that even now these people considered Yugi nothing more than a shell for Atem, however he nodded and followed Karim back up the stairs, leaving the silent chamber far below the ground to find that the Order of the Phoenix were already erecting wards to protect the entrance to the duel site and several duellists were beginning to summon their monsters now so they did not have to exhaust themselves at the start of the upcoming fight.

He could not say he was entirely comfortable with the looks he was getting as he sought out his friends. Everyone had been briefed on what would have to happen and that he had to lead the forces protecting the duel. Not that he had any idea how how he was going to do that. He still had no idea of how he was going to get through Zorcemort's evil gods, yet alone somehow manage to kill him. He did not want to have to kill anyone, but there was not a choice in the matter. He was supposedly destined to kill Voldemort and with Zorc possessing him, Harry had a horrible feeling that he was just going to die horribly.

"You alright, Harry?" Luna asked. The young Seer was smiling at him from the shade of one of the ruined buildings. "You look like you're being chased by a Shadewing."

"What's a shadewing?" He could not help but ask, smiling slightly. Luna always knew of some strange creature to tell him about and it always cheered him up.

"It's a powerful, fierce creature who steals hope and makes brave men flee." Luna informed him as he joined her in avoiding the insane Egyptian heat that seemed to sap strength and make everyone feel sticky and horrible.

"How do people beat it?" Harry could not help but ask.

"They ask for help." Luna grinned happily, "The more people team up against it, the easier it goes down."

Harry paused. Yugi had said much the same. Just because he had to be the one to finish Voldemort, didn't mean his friends could not help him. He did not have to fight the crazy demon one on one.

"I have an idea."

* * *

Serenity knew something was wrong when she heard a door slam loudly just above where she was keeping an eye on Yugi. When there was a second slam, hard enough to rattled the wall, she summoned her Dancing Fairy card, hoping the 1700 attack point fairies could stand guard for her.

The tiny trio of fairies danced around her briefly before the biggest of the three settled on her outstretched hand, "Serenity? You called us?" It's voice was quiet and reminded her of the sound of tiny bells.

"Yes, can you look after Yugi for me?" She asked her, trying to ignore the giggling of the smallest fairy, who was wandering up the sleeping Pharaoh's chest, notably avoiding the Puzzle. "He got really hurt and needs to sleep but something's going on upstairs."

"Why didn't you summon us sooner?" The little brunette complained. "We're healers. We could have helped." She looked insulted and the young healer paused to consider the creature in front of her. "What's hurt?" It demanded.

She had not even thought to consider summoning any of the creatures in her deck to assist her in her duties. After the Trials of the True King, where the Shadows had been preventing the duel monsters from healing anyone properly, it had not occurred to her to call the fairy types and she quickly gave the irritated monster an apologetic look, "I'm sorry, he got hit by a bone-breaker hex and it shattered his right arm, we've vanished the shards and given him Skele-Grow along with a a very strong painkiller and a Dreamless Sleep potion so he can sleep through it, but..."

"We can work from that." The fairy nodded, "Can we have Healing Wave Generator too?"

"Y...yes." Serenity went to check through her deck, only to find that it was the next card at the top of the stack of cards. "Heart of the Cards..." She giggled as she held out the monster, "Healing Wave Generator! Come forth!"

Where the fairies had arrived in a gust of wind, the mirror like generator appeared in a burst of light and floated in place. The fairies moved it over to the bed, chattering at it at high speed and Serenity grinned as she headed out the door. She could trust her Duel Monsters with Yugi's health and safety. She knew that if there was really a problem, they would come and get her.

She got upstairs to find Ishizu was examining some damage to the yacht. The wall and door frame were cracked and she could hear Ishizu grumble, "I knew he'd react badly but..."

"Everything okay?" Ishizu startled slightly at Serenity's question. "I heard slamming."

"I..." Ishizu sighed. "Don't know...I think your brother took the news badly."

"What news?" Serenity asked, wincing as a third door slammed on her brother's way onto the deck of the yacht.

"I..." Ishizu hesitated, "Could you talk to him?"

She nodded and headed up on deck, blinking as she stepped into the light of the setting Egyptian sun. The view was glorious and she hesitated a moment to enjoy it. While she knew that this trip was not a vacation she could not help but enjoy the sight of the sun setting west of the river, the beautiful sight of the sky slowly shifting from day to night and the river glow like the sunset set the water on fire and turned it a beautiful gold.

When she could pull herself away from the view she went looking for her brother. She found him at the back of the boat, staring off into the distance. "Joey?"

His shoulders sank as she approached, "Hey Serenity...how's Yuge?"

"Healing well. I think his arm might be regrown faster than I anticipated..." She tried to reassure him. "What did Ishizu say to make you break the boat?" Joey grimace made Serenity worry. "Talk to me? Please?"

"Yuge might die."

"We're all at risk of dying later." Serenity frowned, confused.

"Not in the big fight." Joey shook his head. "In the duel."

"But I thought Atem..." It hit her, the cost of the duel. "Oh."

"Yeah." Joey's tone was bitter.

"Does he know?" She asked, leaning against him, trying to comfort him.

"She wants ME to tell him." Joey snapped out, leaning back, needing it. He had been willing to let Atem go. He had not been happy about it but he had known for years that one day Atem would leave them and go on to the afterlife. Finding out now, when there was no choice but to go ahead with it, that it could be YUGI who could be sent on, just made him furious. It was not right or fair. "She thinks they'll take it better from me..."

"She's probably not wrong." Serenity allowed, suddenly understanding Joey's anger and pain.

"No but..." He trailed off, just watching the stars appear in the night sky.

"We'll work it out together." Serenity promised, "We have time."

"Thanks Sis."

* * *

"Damn that was close." Marik gasped as he leaned against the wall of the Louvre in Paris. "He almost had us that time." He closed his eyes for a moment, only to feel himself slipping sideways as the exhaustion from nearly seven and a half hours of fruitlessly calling god monsters to cause magic spikes, summoning monsters and his many trips through the Shadow Realm, started catching up to him.

"You're doing well, Master Marik." Odeon caught him, supporting him until he could stay on his feet on his own, despite his own exhaustion, "And we can stop soon."

"Not here though." Marik huffed, trying to catch his breath. "It's too crowded." He gestured around at the area they emerged out into. Even after Shadowmorn and the attack on Japan, the lure of the Louvre museum was too great for tourists to ignore. That meant he was surrounded by innocent civilians and he would have to have to find somewhere quieter before he let off another shot of magic.

Odeon nodded and helped him away from their arrival point. It was not a bad thing they needed to find somewhere quieter, they were slowing down, he could feel it. On the last hop, they had only just avoided Zorc's magical blast. Odeon had barely escaped from the killing curses with his life. Perhaps if they took a few minutes to eat and drink something it would not be as close next time.

He was honestly not sure how well this was working. Zorc kept following his magic, but he could not be certain how much longer it would keep the demon on his tail. Sooner, rather than later, the demon was going to decide that this was not worth the effort and head for the ceremonial duel site. If anything he was surprised that it was still working. Zorc had to have worked out he was not chasing the Pharaoh by now.

The question was, if the demon _was_ aware that he was not Yugi, then why was he still following him?

His concerns on that matter fled when Marik heard screaming coming from back down the alley they had started down and a huge burst of Shadow magic erupted from the same point he had arrived at. His eyes widened and he started to bolt away, trying to ignore the fire that was starting to spread like a possessed animal and the screaming. He was not the hero, that was the Pharaoh's job. His was to keep the demon away from Egypt as long as he could. Even if...

"Ra damn it…" Marik stalled, coming to a stop and glancing back. His duty was to the Pharaoh, he needed to leave and drag Zorc's attention elsewhere. Except his Pharaoh would not want this to happen. Yugi would never abandon innocent people to be murdered and tortured by the foul demon that he had led here. That was probably why Zorc was attacking. He was fed up of chasing him and followed his trail till the end before unleashing hell.

His options were to flee and let Zorc burn his way across Europe, knowing that it would keep Zorc away from Egypt but the moment Yugi woke from his potion induced slumber and found out about it, the Pharaoh would try and stop the slaughter and probably die. Or he could go back, challenge Zorc, and pray he could last long enough to give Yugi the time he needed.

"I am not the hero, damnit." Marik stared back at the worst of the flames, unsure of what to do.

He could not just leave; his Pharaoh would never forgive him. At the same time, however, he did not wish to die. It was not like he had willingly sworn to follow the King. His father had forced him into the oath and the position of head of the Tomb Keeper clan. He had been trying to make up to Yugi for his betrayal before and during Battle City and the fact his dark side had tormented, tortured and almost killed the Pharaoh and his friends but this was too much.

"Your choice Marik. I'll follow you either way." Odeon promised. "What should we do?"

Marik stared at him briefly, then back at the devastation. He did not know. He knew what he _should_ do, but he also did not entirely _want_ to do it.

"Marik?"

"Let's go."

* * *

Night had fallen and everyone was as ready as they could be. Everyone who could was getting some sleep before the battle started and those who could not had wrapped up warm to deal with the cold Egyptian night air and were trying to keep their minds off of what was to come.

For Ryou, the area was too steeped in darkness for him to sleep. He could not help but recognise where they were. Just because no one from the Tomb Keeper tribe had dared to give the name of the ruined village that the ceremonial duel site was in, it did not mean that Ryou could not tell where they were. His inherited memories from his deceased dark half made sure that from the positions of the destroyed buildings, the position of the sun when it had been setting and rage of the spirits that boiled away underneath the surface he was one hundred percent certain of it.

This was the village of Kul Elna. The very place that had been razed to the ground and created the demon that was coming to destroy them in the first place. He wondered if Harry could feel the dark energy of the place and whether it was worrying him as much as it was worrying Ryou.

He saw movement amongst the ruins and quickly and quietly followed, becoming confused when he saw Ombre heading for the edge of the village. "Ombre?"

The Spirit of the Orb of Light froze at the sound of her name for just a moment, then carried on down the ruined alley, not wanting to talk to the speaker.

"Ombre! Stop walking away from me." She winced as the speaker grabbed her arm and tried to resist him pulling her around to face him. "Please...what did I do? Why won't you talk to me?"

"Ryou..." Ombre closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh. "It's not you..."

"Then why haven't you spoken to me properly since Shadowmorn?" He asked, sounding hurt and worried as his voice revealed he was moving in front of her. "What're you doing? I might be able to help..."

"No you can't Ry." Ombre's eyes opened and she tried to glare at him, ignoring how much it hurt to do so and trying to control the darker instincts that insisted that she could force him out of her way. It was not Ryou's fault, he did not deserve to suffer from her growing levels of insanity. "No one can help me. The Orb won't work for you. The one person who could help me is dead so I'm screwed and it's my..." She squeaked as Ryou grabbed her and pinned her to the nearest wall by the shoulders. "R...Ryou?"

"No. It wasn't." He told her firmly, his tone unwavering and stubborn. "It's not your fault Kari died and I won't let you slip away and vanish forever."

"Ry...I'm already dead. You know that. I can't be saved." Ombre tried to pull away but the former barer of the Millennium Ring was stronger than he looked and he shifted his grip to keep her pinned.

"Damn it Ombre, Kari died because she gave up. Don't you dare do the same!" He snapped at her, sounding far too much like his deceased dark half for Ombre's unravelling mind to handle. She lost it, pushing him away with a wave of her Orb given telekinesis and only snapping out of it when he slammed into the opposite wall with a stunned cry and fell into a heap at the bottom, groaning in pain as he hit the sand.

"Ry...I'm sorry...I'm so sorry..." She had never wanted to hurt him and Ombre wanted to dart over to check he was okay but she could not. She was not safe. She had not been safe since Kari had been murdered by Wormtail. Any burst of emotions could endanger those around her.

"I know..." He forced himself to his feet and smiled at her softly. "It's not your fault. The Orb screwed you when it made you. Gave you all the weaknesses of a dark even though you weren't bound to a pure light but I can help."

"How? My Partner is gone. My sister, the key to my sanity is dead and I'm so crazy I nearly killed Yugi. Twice. It's too late for me."

Ryou nearly grimaced, remembering hearing about how Ombre had nearly choked Yugi to death and then blasted him with magic, causing some serious injuries. Injuries that probably had not helped his attempts to heal from Shadowmorn. However he managed to hold it in, knowing it would not help, "You're bound to the Orb of Light. It can only be used by a half made whole, right?" He asked.

"Yes...but..." Before she could finish, Ryou smiled at her.

"My dark is gone, but I've inherited his powers and memories...so trust me." He put his hand out, "Give me the Orb."

Ombre hesitated and then took the Orb from her pocket, trembling slightly as she went to put it in Ryou's hand. She did not want to die. She had not existed before Kari and she did not want to vanish again. If Ryou's plan worked she could live. However she did not know if she would be as insane as she was now.

"It'll be okay." Ryou promised. "Give me the Orb."

Ombre dropped it into Ryou's hand.

Almost instantly there was a bright glow and Ombre gasped and backed up, sliding down the wall until she was sat on the sand and closing her eyes as the mess her mind had become suddenly organised itself back into it's rightful order, the overwhelming surging of her magic calmed down and the dark voices whispering at the back of her mind went silent for the first time since Kari had been killed.

 _'Ombre.'_ She froze, mentally and physically as she heard Ryou's voice in her head and felt his light fill in all the cracks in her mind and 'soul' left by Kari's absence, ' _It's okay. I'm with you now. Let me help you up.'_

She opened her eyes to find Ryou was offering her a hand to her feet.

"R...Ryou..." Ombre hesitated momentarily, then nodded, smiling as she took his hand. "Thank you."

"It's okay. Now, what were you up to?" He asked as he pulled her up.

"I have memories of a border spell that used to be used to keep people out who don't belong here." She told him, "It should give us a little time tomorrow."

"It'll keep the Death Eaters out sure but..." Ryou hesitated.

"Ry?" Ombre asked, frowning slightly. "I'm not going to read your mind unless you want me to..."

"I have some things to tell you, but let's get started." Ryou shook his head and headed for the village border, "I don't know how much longer we've got."

* * *

Joey slipped into Yugi's room on the ship to find that the fairies his sister left behind to protect his best friend flew into his face and tried to push him back out again.

"Easy, easy girls." Serenity chuckled as she entered behind him, "My brother's not going to hurt Yugi. How is he now?"

The trio of duel monsters grinned and soared over to the Pharaoh who looked far healthier than when Serenity had left him. She moved over to the bed to examine him and smiled when her tests told her that the Skele-Grow had done it's job and Yugi's arm was fully healed, while her Duel Monsters had restored everything else.

"Well?" Joey asked, worried.

"You can wake him now, it's safe." She nodded.

Joey took a deep breath. He was not looking forward to this. He kind of felt like Ishizu was deliberately dropping this on him to do purely so Atem would not flip out at her. He shook Yugi gently, trying to wake him, only for his friend to grunt and turn away. Joey chuckled and shook him again. "Yuge, come on, you need to wake up now."

Yugi's eyes opened and gave him a sleepy, bleary look, suggesting the rather big dose of Dreamless Sleep potion had not quite worn off yet. "Joey?" He glanced around, becoming confused as he sat up, "What's going on? Where are we?"

"In Ishizu's boat, on our way down the Nile." Joey answered, noting the brief grimace that Yugi could not hide that told him how little he wanted to be here. "We need to talk."

"What's up?" Yugi paused in getting out of bed to look at him. "What's happened?"

"Yuge..." Joey hesitated, "Marik and Ishizu didn't tell you something about the Ceremonial Duel. Can Atem come out too? He kind of needs to hear this." He tried not to startle as the deceased Pharaoh appeared in spirit form, sat on the edge of Yugi's bed. Even now, years after his near death in the Shadow Realm had given him the ability to see ghosts, it startled him when the dead just appeared out of nowhere.

"Joey? You're worrying me...what haven't they told us?" Yugi looked really worried now.

"Yuge...the defeated King has to go to the afterlife." Joey could see that Yugi did not get it, though Yugi was clearly still trying to wake up properly.

"What...?" Yugi asked, but Joey saw the moment that Atem got it as the former Pharaoh went deathly still.

"I won't duel." Atem shook his head, confusing Yugi further. "Not if it risks Yugi."

"What?" Yugi asked again, then his waking mind caught up with the problem. "We...we don't have a choice, Yami. Even if..."

"No." Atem snapped out. "You could die. In my place. I won't..."

"Atem...enough." Yugi sighed, putting his hand on Atem's arm. "We don't have a choice. If we don't duel and one of us doesn't leave. Zorc stays. For good. I just...will have to kick your butt."

"Yugi..." His dark half hesitated, not wanting to be the one responsible for killing Yugi.

"I know. I know. But there's no other way." The light souled Pharaoh's shoulders sank as Atem retreated into the Puzzle to try and calm himself over this news before the duel. "How long have I been out?"

"Eight hours." Joey replied, "We're about an hour from docking and then it's an hour by car."

"I'll talk to Ishizu. We can get the Duel Monsters to get us there faster." Yugi shook his head. "We just need to build Atem a deck and we're ready."

"Well Kaiba sent along a big box of spares." Joey hesitated, surprised by how well Yugi was taking this news as his sister dismissed her Duel Monsters. "Want me to go get it?"

"Yes. Please." Yugi nodded, waiting until Joey and his sister had left to grab a pillow and scream his emotions into it.

Upset, fear and anger all tumbled through him as he processed the news properly. He did not want to die. He was not ready. He was willing to help Atem move on, no matter how much he really did not want to let him go, but he did not want to have to walk through the Gates to the Afterlife himself.

Joey came back in with the box and Yugi quickly put the pillow down, faking calm and trying to be reassuring for his friend, who looked just as upset as he felt as he scurried off to let Ishizu know about the change of plans for departure.

There was not a choice. One of them had to die and if it was him, and he really, really did not want it to be him, that was how it had to be. If one of them did not die then Zorc would not lose his immortality and everyone who had put themselves between them and the duel would die for nothing.

He had to win. He had to defeat Atem and send his dark half on.

He was not ready to die.

* * *

Marik was also not ready to die.

"Clever, Marik, very clever." Marik grumbled sarcastically to himself as he and Odeon took cover behind a wall, trying to avoid getting hit by the sheer volume of spells being pelted their way. "Show your face, get them to chase you and _not_ take into account that that _thing_ is stronger than you..."

"And has many more men." Odeon confirmed, sounding amused by his brother's grumbling, earning himself a sour look from Marik.

"Come out, Pharaoh." Zorc's hissing voice sounded amused and the way he stressed 'Pharaoh' pretty much confirmed in Marik's mind that the demon was fully aware that he was not the young man in question. "Or I'll destroy that barricade of yours."

On the plus side, if Zorc was fully aware that he was not Yugi, then he could summon his own monsters in order to get out of here. He drew from his deck and tried to call the Juragedo that he had just drawn, only to find that he could feel the power respond to him but it fizzled out before the Duel Monster could reach him. He could not tell if it was his own exhaustion from the eight hours of magic use or whether there was something else in play.

"Marik." He froze as the demon chuckled his name, stunned that the demon knew who he was without ever having seen his face, "I know it's you. You and I are tied together, I know your soul. I know your favourite monsters. Your dark half and I were a great team for a while."

He gulped, having never bothered to wonder what had given his insane half his powers before and suddenly realising that Zorc might know him better than he had given it credit for. "I won't work with you again."

"Why not?" The demon hissed as the sound of footsteps approached and Marik managed to get a trap card set up, one that triggered off and stopped the spells from hitting their barricade, along with making the footsteps stop in their tracks. "Gravity Bind...clever."

Marik stood up, the shadows flooding the area erasing the disguise spell he had been under for the last few hours, revealing himself to the demon now he knew that it could not attack him. "If you knew it was me, why have you been chasing me?"

He felt the Shadows close in around him and felt the mental shackles of a Shadow Game latch onto him as the demon stared at him, "I need a decent host. This body is powerful in it's own forms of magic but it's Ba is next to non-existent. It's restraining my powers. You, however, are one of the three Duelists in the world who can summon the God monsters, you'll do nicely. So let's play a game."

"What's the terms?" He tried not to show any fear in front of the demon, kind of ticked that the game was already active without him accepting it.

"You and I will play a game." The demon's smirk was disturbing the the warped, twisted vessel of the Dark Lord who had once been Voldemort, "You win, you and your brother can walk away. I win and your vessel becomes mine and I devour his soul."

"And what's the game?" He demanded, trying not to tremble at the thought he was locked into a game that could kill Odeon.

The demon waved it's hand and a senet set, a table and two chairs appeared between them. It then scowled around at it's Death Eaters. "Since you're all useless here, everyone except you, you and you," It pointed out three of the stupider seeming ones who had continued to try to cast spells for a while even after the Gravity Bind had taken effect, "Go and stake out the duel site I took you to earlier and inform me when the Pharaoh arrives."

Odeon's eyes widened and he tried to summon a monster to go to Kul Elna himself, only to find the game would not let him.

"Nice try, but you and Marik here are locked into the game unless I release you." Zorc gloated as his Death Eaters headed for the village, ready to ambush Yugi. He then turned back to Marik and gestured to the table, "Ready to lose that vessel to me?"

"I won't be controlled by you again." Marik took his place and chose his pieces, "Let's play."

* * *

The deck was ready.

Atem was not entirely sure he was ready, especially after the news he had received earlier. News that he could feel had stunned and upset Yugi as much as it had him. However the deck, itself, was ready to go. He had even, after discussing with Yugi if he would allow it, slipped the cards themselves into deck protectors with plain, opaque backs in order to be able to use his most trusted and powerful cards. His trusted friends, Mahado and Mana were in the deck, alongside the God monsters, ready to fight with him.

The strange thing was, as much as he would rather have been battling alongside his friends against Zorc, this close to the Ceremonial Duel he could admit he was tired. Tired of everything. He had been around so long and had to fight so hard, that he just wanted to rest.

That did not mean he was not going to fulfil his duties and fight with everything he had, but...if it was him. If he was the one who lost and had to move on, he would respect that and go, if not happily, but knowing that he had fulfilled every duty he had been able to fulfil.

"Ready, Atem?" Joey asked as he poked his head in the door, looking a little sad.

"I will be in a second." The former Pharaoh smiled at him, trying to be reassuring, knowing that his leaving was going to hurt his friends as much as leaving them would hurt him.

That was the thing. Leaving itself was not what made his heart wrench when he thought about what was to come. What hurt him was the thought that he could be the one to kill Yugi after all they had been through together and if he was not then his leaving would tear Yugi's soul in two forever and that his departure would hurt all of his friends.

"Come on up when you're ready to leave." Joey nodded and headed up onto the deck of the yacht that Ishizu had so very kindly bought for his final journey.

The Pharaoh stood up and mentally knocked on the door to Yugi's soul room. _'Yugi, I'm done. You can come out now.'_ He felt his light half emerge from the room, saw his spirit form appear in the cabin and for a moment the pair of them just stared at each other, then Yugi wrapped his arms around Atem in the best version of a hug they could get since Atem's new body had died. Atem hugged him back as best he could, taking a deep breath and trying to force back the tears that he could feel forming.

They had been together for years. Yugi and Yami, two halves that made each other whole, ever since Yugi had solved the Millennium Puzzle at sixteen.

And now it had to end.

Atem was mostly ready but it was leaving Yugi that would be the hardest thing he had done in the almost decade since his precious, wonderful light had solved the Puzzle for the first time.

Yugi pulled back, spectral tears tumbling down his cheeks briefly before the young man wiped them away, trying not to show how much this hurt. _'R...ready?'_

 _'Yes.'_ Atem nodded once Yugi had pulled himself together. _'Let's go.'_


	19. No Matter What

The moon was setting over Kul Elna, casting long shadows across the shifting sands and seeping through hastily put up barriers and curtains. The last rays of light fell upon the sleeping forms of those who had spent most of the night preparing for the oncoming storm.

In one of the buildings closest to the Ceremonial Duel site, the shaft that seeped through the barricade fell upon the entwined forms of Ryou Bakura and Ombre Ironhide, gently waking the white haired young man who smiled softly as he beheld his bedmate.

Just a few hours ago they had finished laying the groundwork for a spell that would prevent anyone entering Kul Elna unless they belonged there. All they had to do was activate it once Yugi and the others got here and the Death Eaters would not be able to pass through the border with their leader. They would be able to focus on taking out the big guy while his minions would have to take down the barrier before they could enter.

Ombre mumbled in her sleep and curled into Ryou's side. He ran a hand through her hair, able to sense how contented she was. He had never been so pleased to be right. He had not been entirely certain that taking on the Orb of Light would balance her out, but they had been a couple for far too long for him not to try. Losing his dark half meant very little to him, unlike Yugi he barely cared for the spirit of his Millennium Item. However losing Ombre would have been devastating for him and he had not been able to bear the thought.

That the Orb of Light had accepted him as a 'half made whole' had been a massive relief, restored Ombre's mind, allowed him to sleep for a while and given him a few extra tricks in the upcoming fight.

The sound of something vibrating caused him to extract himself from the comfort of being curled up with his girlfriend, to dig through his jacket and find his phone. The caller ID told him it was Joey and he slipped outside as he answered it. "Joey, what's wrong?"

"Yo Ryou." Joey sounded stressed, making Ryou wonder what else had gone wrong while he had been daring to take a brief nap. "We'll be there in about half an hour."

"I thought you were coming around dawn time?" He straightened up at the news, trying to work out the best way to wake everyone and suddenly very glad that being on Kaiba Corp's phone network meant that he had signal wherever the KC satellite grid reached.

"Yugi's not willing to wait to take the long road and I can't argue with him when...well, you know." Joey's did not explain but Ryou did know. Zorc was chasing Marik around the world but they could not be certain how long that would last and if the demon got to Kul Elna before Yugi did, then it was probably Game Over. "Will you all be ready?"

"I can get us ready." The former Ring barer promised as Ombre stepped out, having been woken by his swirling thoughts.

"See you soon, Ry." Joey put the phone down and Ryou blinked at it for a moment, surprised Joey had given him a nickname, before turning to Ombre.

"I was listening in." She smiled ruefully, tapping her head before he could say anything, "I'll take the left, you take the right..." She paused, fished her phone out of her pocket, maxed out the volume and then set of an alert tone that rang through the night air causing much cussing and scrambling to be heard in the nearby buildings.

The streets, which only seconds earlier had been eerily deserted and silent was suddenly flooded with movement and noise as Duel Monsters, Wizards and Shadow-Touched Duelists alike piled out to find out what was going on.

"Ryou? Ombre?" Hermione asked as she stepped out of the building she had been sharing with some of the younger fighters, "What's wrong?"

"Where's Harry?" Ombre did not answer straight away, instead looking around for the boy in question.

"Talking to Ishizu. She came and got him half an hour ago, said it was important." Hermione looked worried, "Why?"

"Yugi's on his way. The battle will start soon." At her words people started to scramble into position. They all knew the plan, they had been over it so many times yesterday evening that everyone knew where they had to be. Hermione nodded and scurried to the duel site, where Harry was rushing up the stairs, having heard the noise.

"Hermione?" He asked, worried.

"Yugi'll be here soon." She worried at him. "Should ring Seto? He wasn't here when I..."

"No need." A second voice, one she had not expected come up the stairwell as it's owner headed for the surface. Hermione's eyes widened as Seto Kaiba stepped out into the moonlight.

She was glad to see him. She had not been entirely sure he would show. On their return from England he had been there to help plot. However he had also been actively avoiding them ever since Neos had murdered Yami at his tournament unless circumstances were dire. After he had been forced into betraying Yugi, he had not seemed to want to fix the rift his actions had caused. He had been there when they had gotten back from England, but it had been under duress. Him being here, now, was a surprise and a relief.

They needed his strength and Hermione was hopeful that he and Atem would at least talk before the Mutou twins did what needed to be done.

"Seto. Hi." She smiled at him as Mokuba came to stand at his brother's side, backing him up. He just nodded back, his posture tense and on edge. With everything going on it was understandable. Plus she would not be surprised if it was only being multiplied by the fact that Seto and Atem were not on good terms any more.

She did not entirely blame Yami for his anger. Yugi had nearly died and the Pharaoh had been forced back into the Puzzle. If Seto had just alerted the former Pharaoh that he was being forced to lay a trap for Yugi in exchange for his brother's safety, Yami could have helped him rescue Mokuba. He certainly would have waited for his hikari on the other side of the lake and not have entered the underwater tunnels where he had been killed. Not only that but if Yugi had not been in the villain's clutches, they could have gotten to the Kame Game Shop sooner and it was possible Yugi's family would still be alive.

She herself did not entirely know how she felt about the entire mess. Seto had betrayed them and a lot of people had been hurt or killed because of it. However she understood why he had done it. Mokuba had been possessed by the enemy and she was fully aware that he was the centre of his older brother's universe. Despite the fact that she was friends with him, she harboured no delusions that she would rank anywhere near important to him in that situation. Yugi seemed to harbour no anger towards Seto either, fully understanding that in the CEO's world, his brother would ALWAYS come first.

She could not truly judge him, one way or the other, as she had never been in his position so she had decided to keep treating him the way she always had. Right now was an awful time for there to be infighting amongst them anyway and as much as she wanted to deny that she would have done the same in his place, she could not.

"'Mione," Harry looked as nervous as Hermione felt as he drew her attention back to him, "Kaiba says he can handle the evil Gods."

"Really?" She turned to look at Kaiba, relief clear on her features.

"Yugi and Marik aren't the only ones who can summon the God monsters." The CEO nodded sharply, watching her reaction, as if expecting her to object and making her wonder if Joey had already said something to him.

She simply paused to think. If Seto could handle the evil Gods, then all they had to worry about was the ground troops and Zorc. It was still a huge worry but it was less of one. She nodded and fished around in her bag until she found the amulets she was looking for.

"What do these do?" Mokuba asked curiously, taking one of the pendants and examining it.

"They're charmed to provide a shield spell if you wear it. I only had time to make three between Neos's attack and going to England." Hermione grimaced, "But Harry has one, you should have one Seto and..."

"Thank you." The strain on Kaiba's face lifted slightly as he realised she was giving the last one to his little brother, allowing him to focus more on handling Zorc's dark Gods.

"I wish I could say they're a perfect defence but I'm not sure how much they can handle so don't be reckless, okay?" She did not bother to look at Seto, well aware he was nothing if logical in his actions. Instead her gaze turned to Harry and Mokuba, the latter of whom looked sheepish.

An upsurge in Shadows disrupted the conversation and the group turned to look as the Pharaoh and his closest friends arrived via Duel Monster.

The moment they stepped out of the Shadows Harry could sense the maelstrom of emotions flowing through his link parters. There was none of it on the surface though and Harry was quite impressed at how calm Yugi was managing to appear as he hugged Hermione, nodded to Seto and Mokuba and turned to smile at Harry.

"Let's gather the others." Harry paused to look his friend properly at the slight tremble in Yugi's voice, realising there was something important he did not know. "It's time."

"Yugi are you...?"

"There's no time." His friend cut him off with a shake of his head. "I'll be fine. We need to get this duel started..."

He nodded but he did not need to call the others in. They flooded in by themselves. Atem took control and Harry lost trace of the hugs and high fives and tears that flowed and once they had all said goodbye to Atem, Yugi took over, smiling at everyone and reassuring them.

Something was wrong though. Harry could feel it.

Yugi's smile was forced and his heart ached. Harry wanted to believe that it was because of what was about to happen, but something in the way Yugi wished his friends good luck in the upcoming battles was off. Like he was not sure he would be joining them.

Did Yugi think they were going to lose?

He reached out to Yugi's mind and nearly stumbled at the maelstrom of emotions flooding it. His friend quickly cut the bond and glanced at him worried but Harry was too stunned at what he had sensed to comment.

Yes, his friend was grieving for the loss of Atem and was scared that his friends would not survive this battle, but there was grief and anger for himself too.

What the hell was going on?

* * *

He was going to lose.

Zorc scowled down at the board as the realisation hit him. Next turn Marik would get his final piece to the end of the board and he would have to let both him and Odeon go.

He could not let it happen. While he was certain that he could destroy the Pharaoh as he was, the raw power he could draw from within the vessel of a God Chosen would enable him bring about a second Shadowmorn. He wanted that power. He needed it. The world would be so much easier to control with that sort of power at his beck and call.

The crack of apperition caught his attention and he turned to look at the arrival to find that it was one of the Death Eaters he had stolen from the worthless vessel he was stuck in. They shifted from foot to foot nervously.

"Speak." He was quite pleased with the sharp hiss that emerged as the minion stepped forward.

"Th...The Pharaoh. He just got to..."

He did not get to finish. Zorc let out a frustrated snarl as the realisation that Marik had, in fact, managed to stall for enough time to allow the Pharaoh to make the journey. If he had only just gotten there then his friends had probably taken him to a healer too, meaning that whole mess in the Ministry had been basically worthless except in that it had allowed him to remove Dumbledore from his path.

"We're still playing, Zorc." Marik's smug tone and aura of pride infuriated him as he started to leave the table.

He stopped, his long fingers caming up to play with the pendant his worthless host had turned into a horocrux after Shadowmorn had stolen away his other soul pieces. The man's final act before Zorc had sealed him away at the back of his own mind.

He could feel the man's scrabbling for control as he realised what the demon wearing his form had planned. The demon turned to face his opponent who suddenly looked a lot less confident as he took it off and tossed it to the darkness surrounding them. The man screeched in his anger as the Shadows devoured the soul piece and faded away, ending the game early.

Marik stood quickly, backing up, reaching for his deck but Zorc was faster, casting a spell that knocked the young man down. Odeon tried darted forward to protect his brother, but with a wave of his hand a surge of Shadows hit him hard and sent him crashing into the nearest wall, where he collapsed, stunned.

"I might not be able to control you." The demon hissed as Marik tried to get to his feet, only for the two Death Eaters Zorc had not sent away to grab him. "But I can reunite you with an old friend."

The Tomb Keeper's eyes widened as Zorc opened his hand, revealing a ball of anger, pain and hate.

"I kept this one for myself, hoping I would have use for him." The young man struggled as the creature masquerading as Voldemort approached, "And now I do."

"I won't let him control me again." Marik bit out, trying to wrench himself free of his captors' grip to no avail, wishing he had followed his instincts and carried on running.

"You don't have a choice." With that he drove the darkness into Marik's chest.

The Tomb Keeper screamed as pain rushed through his body, every nerve feeling like it was on fire. He felt himself slipping as the dark energy took advantage of the burning sensation to seize his vessel and steal control away, and he fought back, refusing to let go easily.

"Marik!" Odeon's voice gave him something to hold on to. Something to use to fight back the darkness. He had almost managed to regain his focus and control when the demon spoke.

"Crucio!"

He did not know how but the agony doubled and he screamed as the pain became overwhelming, disabling almost every thought except how much it hurt and allowing the Shadows to sweep in and steal his form while his mind recoiled from the torture.

"O...Odeon..." He gasped out as the darkness dragged him down, "Please...protect...Ishizu..."

Odeon watched in horror as his brother's plea trailed off and his head fell forward. His eyes widened as Marik's hair spiked, his expression twisted and Shadows flowed from him, consuming the nearby area. "No..."

He was not heard, the demon was busy smirking as it ended its hex and sharp red eyes opened, looking up at him as he spoke. "Rise, Kek. It's time for you to fulfil your oath to me."

As the Death Eaters backed off and the demented version of his brother got to his feet, a malicious smirk growing on his features, Odeon staggered to his own.

He wanted to stay. Wanted to fight to free his brother. He could not let him fall into darkness again. It might have a new name. The demon might be calling it Kek, after the God who brought night, but it was the same twisted, psychotic monster that it had been so many years ago, when it had torn through the Pharaoh's ranks and come so very, very close to destroying the world.

If he walked away he felt like he would be failing his brother again.

But Marik had begged him to go to their sister. His final words before the Shadows had consumed him again had been to tell him to protect her.

"I'm sorry, my brother." He whispered before summoning a monster and heading for the battle site.

* * *

Their footsteps echoed in the empty, silent chamber as they entered the Ceremonial Duel site.

Yugi could fell discomfort enter his dark's mind and he reached out gently, _"Yami?"_

_'I know where we are. This is Kul Elna. This is where they forged the items.'_ At Atem's words his eyes widened and he stared around, taking in the sight of the shrine beneath the massacre site. _'This is Bakura's home.'_

"Gods..." Yugi's whisper bounced off the walls.

"Yuge? You okay?" Joey asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"As okay as I can be." The Pharaoh answered, his gaze fixed on the set of giant stone doors at the other end of the room, engraved with hieroglyphs and hieratic text that spoke of the afterlife and judgement that awaited the one who walked through them.

Joey could feel his friend trembling under his hand. "Yuge...we can find another way. You don't have to do this."

"There is no other way. You know that as well as we do." He could hear his voice trembling but he knew he was speaking the truth, as much as he wanted to deny it.

"But if you lose..." Joey hesitated.

"If I lose, you all still win." His friend smiled, a sad, slightly bitter smile. "And whichever one of us is left standing will come and join the fight as soon as we can."

"What do you mean, 'whichever one is left standing'?" The pair wheeled around to look at the doorway, where Harry was stood glaring at them.

"Harry..."

"I knew something was wrong. Upstairs, when you were wishing people good luck, your mind was a mess and at first I thought it was because you're having to let Yami go, then I realised, you weren't just saying good luck. You were saying good bye." Harry's voice shook, anger clear. "You're leaving with him, aren't you?"

Yugi winced at the accusation, glad that it was only Harry and Joey there.

"Answer me!" Harry took a step forward, his anger echoing off the walls.

"I'm not leaving with Yami but..." The Pharaoh's shoulders sank, "The losing King must leave in order to let you destroy Zorc."

"And you're the new Pharaoh..." His friend's anger stalled out and fear and grief replaced it. "This isn't fair."

"No. It's not but it's what has to be done and I didn't want..." Yugi's stopped and swallowed, trying to clear the lump in his throat. "There's too much happening upstairs for my fate to distract everyone."

"They deserve...they deserve the chance to say goodbye too damnit!" Harry's voice shook as he snapped at the King.

"They did."

"To Yami! Not to you!" The teenager snarled out. "They shouldn't..."

"Harry..." Joey tried but the teen turned on him.

"You knew? You knew and you weren't going to tell us?!" Harry's hands balled into fists as his voice turned sharp and vicious, "That's why you insisted on being the final line of defence, isn't it?! Do Tea and Tristan know?"

When Yugi's gaze turned to the floor Harry let out a string of expletives that he had probably learned from Joey.

"No. I'm getting the others down here and..." He did not get to finish as they all felt the unleashing of a tidal wave of Shadow Magic that felt twisted and cruel and screamed of agony and death to come.

Yugi's face went white as he recognised that power.

"We're out of time." He breathed, shaking, "Zorc caught Marik...he's turned him."

He turned towards the tablet in the centre. The same tablet that Bakura had put the Millennium Items in during the Memory World Shadow Game.

"Harry?" His voice was firmer as he moved forward, "No matter what happens, no matter who wins down here, I'm trusting you. If you can't win the fight, if you can't stop Marik's dark side from reaching the duel site, I'm trusting you to get everyone out safely. No matter what happens, live, okay?"

"Yugi..."

"Promise me. No matter what happens, you'll make it out of this and make sure as many of our friends do as possible." Yugi asked, looking over his shoulder as he pulled the first Millennium Item out of his bag.

This was Yugi's last request, Harry realised, and it was oh so very typically Yugi.

"Of course your last wish is that your friends were safe." Harry's voice shook, his vision going watery, forcing him to wipe his eyes with the back of his hand, "Of course. You might die here. We might lose you forever, but all you care about is that we get out of this okay."

"Sorry..." His Pharaoh turned away and knelt down to place the Millennium Scales into the tablet it had been forged in.

"Don't be." Yugi straightened and wheeled around at the new voice and he was not the only one. Harry and Joey turned too, to find Tea had come down the stairs and she was not the only one.

"Unless its because you tried to hide this from us." Tristan nodded his agreement.

"You better come join us so we can scold you later." Hermione's 'lecturing' tone was in full force as she glowered at him, making him chuckle weakly.

"Yugi. You're not joining Kari today. Understand?" Ombre demanded, her harsh stare making him nod.

"Guys..." Yugi trailed off, not really knowing what to say to them.

"We'll be fine. Focus on what you need to do and come help us kick butt when you're done." Tea's soft smile made him smile back and nod before turning back to the tablet and taking a deep breath.

_'Told you they'd want to know.'_ His dark side's snicker in the back of his mind made Yugi let out an amused huff.

" _I was trying not to worry them."_ He sighed as he placed the Millennium Ring in its rightful place, points extended carefully, his hands trembling.

_'They always worry about us. They're our friends.'_ The recently re-deceased Pharaoh pointed out as Yugi felt him reach out for control and stepped aside to let him slip the Millennium Rod into place.

" _Yami...you know I would have happily been your host forever, right?"_ Yugi asked as the Pharaoh placed the Key, _"That it doesn't matter that we'd have to share one body, you're my brother and that's all that matters to me."_

_'I know.'_ Atem nodded as he moved up towards the head and placed the Millennium Eye.

" _I know we have to do this and neither of us want to but...I promise you, I'm not going to hold back because you deserve your peace. You've been here so long and fought so hard. It's my turn now and I'm going to give you the send off you deserve."_ Yugi's words made him pause for a moment, then softly sigh as he slipped the Necklace into place.

_'And I won't hold back either. I can't and it's not worthy of you. If we have to duel to the death, then I am not going to shame you by keeping back my best.'_ The Pharaoh promised as he moved to the chest and hesitated for a moment before slipping the Millennium Puzzle over his head, half expecting to be forced back into the item, only to be surprised when he remained in control of the body.

" _I am so not ready for this..."_

Yami let out a slightly bitter chuckle, _'Neither am I but here we go.'_

He slipped the Millennium Puzzle into place and the whole tablet lit up in a bright golden glow. Power shot from it to the doors, whose words lit up in a wave of rainbow light as Atem backed away from the tablet.

He felt the moment he split from his partners. The bonds he had forged to Harry disintegrated and his connection Yugi went silent as the light divided them, leaving him and his brother, his best friend, his light stood side by side.

"Yugi..."

"Atem..."

The pair stared at each other for just a moment, then they backed up, neither happy about what had to happen but both as ready as they could be.

"It's time to duel."


End file.
